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Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) has emerged as an advantageous architecture to address the needs of future wireless networks. Leveraging both Network Functions Virtualization and Software-Defined Networking (NFV-SDN) technologies, the C-RAN components can be disaggregated and potentially run in a virtualized environment where either virtual machines (VMs) or containers are efficiently applied. C-RAN solutions require highly reliable fronthaul, midhaul, and backhaul network designs. This work first describes a programmable optical software-defined network testbed that offers fronthaul, midhaul, and backhaul transport capabilities supporting C-RAN functionalities with increased reliability. Optical transport programmable (SDN) capabilities also facilitate live-migration of C-RAN functions between sites in order to achieve improved compute load-balancing and fault-tolerance of the overall C-RAN …