ORAN (Open Radio Access Network)

ORAN (Open Radio Access Network) is an initiative in the telecommunications industry that aims to standardize and virtualize the components of the radio access network (RAN) in mobile networks. Traditionally, RAN has been dominated by proprietary hardware from a few vendors, leading to high costs and vendor lock-in.

With ORAN, the primary goal has been to promote interoperability, flexibility, and innovation by using open interfaces and standardized hardware and software components. The key software components are:

Innovation includes AI/ML functionalities to automate control flows. AI/ML workflows (control loops) operate at different timescales, including:

These loops have hierarchical and heterogeneous characteristics.

Disaggregation can lead to challenges in both commercial telco segments and private sectors. The critical areas affected due to multi-vendor integration include reliability and performance. Both segments demand different cycle times, telco taking longer. The challenges can be tackled by:

With extensive experience in integrating solutions globally, Truminds excels in addressing diverse challenges and use cases such as energy savings, RAN network slice SLA assurance, traffic steering, interference coordination etc. and here are a few use-cases for reference:

‘QoS assurance’ focuses on controlling the performance and service levels that a network can provide to various traffic types and applications. In order to meet the quality of service for different and contrasting traffic types simultaneously, the O-RAN components continuously try to adjust scheduling resources to match the traffic demands. However, from time-to-time certain significant changes might be needed at short notice – For example, when a cell is congested and simultaneously there is a specific emergency traffic requirement for a set of UEs. In this case, the RIC x-app can adjust/control the Data Radio Bearer attributes such as Maximum Flow Bit Rates, Guaranteed Flow Bit Rates, or priority of the QoS flows of a group of UEs so as to accommodate the needs of the high priority emergency traffic. Such QoS attribute control messages can be sent by the RIC via E2 interface to the E2 Nodes.

The Traffic Steering X-App enhances the end user experience by dynamically balancing the load across the cells in a network, e.g. by moving users from a highly loaded cell to an adjacent lightly loaded cell. The X-app achieves this by redistributing the Ues across multiple cells by considering cell/UE metrics for QOS, load, and throughput. Traffic Steering allows efficient utilization of operator resources to meet capacity demands while avoiding additional capital investments.

In the 5G era Network slicing can create multiple separate end-to-end logical Networks tailored to diverse business requirements and run on a shared physical infrastructure. Each slice can be tailored to specific business requirements with a prescribed service level agreement. In this use case, the RIC continuously monitors the slice specific performance metrics, and the resource utilization levels across the RAN for all slices. If an SLA violation is detected, it immediately initiates corrective actions by adjusting specific performance targets of the slice. The X-app within the RIC uses this performance target guidance to continuously update the resource allocation levels on the appropriate CUs and DUs in near-real time to conform to the specified SLA levels.

The Admission Control enables real-time tracking and enforcement of radio resources (PDUs (Protocol Data Units) and UEs (User Equipments). The RIC may need to provide priority services for a category of users such as schools and hospitals. The Admission Control App uses closed loop optimization to dynamically adjust max PDUs and max UEs allocations to handle uneven traffic usage within the coverage area.

Energy-saving strategies involve leveraging long-term load variations to switch carriers on/off, reducing energy consumption during low/medium load periods. These optimizations may create coverage holes, necessitating adjustments by other RIC applications such as Coverage and Capacity Optimization (CCO), potentially through adapting antenna tilt. Carrier activation/deactivation can be managed via interfaces like O1, Xn, requiring detailed interoperability among involved vendors.

PCI (Physical Cell Identity) optimization is crucial in multi-vendor setups to avoid conflicts that can degrade performance metrics like retainability and accessibility. rApps configure PCI for NR cells via the O1 interface, but conflicts may arise when multiple GNBs are deployed. This may impact UE connectivity and inter-cell interference. Evaluating PCI optimization becomes critical in such scenarios.

Our proven expertise of delivering solutions for scenarios with multiple vendors and many moving pieces makes us an attractive choice to provide solutions for increasingly complex use cases and deliver successful, performant solutions for the same !!