A C-RAN includes a plurality of remote units; and a central unit communicatively coupled to the remote units via a fronthaul network. The central unit is configured to determine sets of data to be sent to respective subsets of remote units across the fronthaul network. The central unit is also configured to determine a mapping of each of the sets of data to a respective one of the subsets of remote units. The central unit is also configured to, for each of the sets of data, if at least one of the multicast groups wholly contains the respective subset of remote units mapped to that set of data, transmit that set of data to the respective subset of remote units over the fronthaul network by multicasting that set of data to the multicast group that best matches the respective subset of remote units mapped to that set of data.