Openness in Radio Access Network Design in 6G: the O-RAN Concept (Part 2) [IEEE ICC 2022 Tutorial]

Описание: This is part 2 of the tutorial delivered at IEEE ICC 2022, entitled: "Openness in Radio Access Network Design in 6G: the O-RAN Concept".

Part 2 – Open RAN Architecture & RAN Intelligent Controller, Presenter: Marcin Dryjański, Ph.D.

In this part, we discuss the details of Open RAN including its building blocks, architecture, and RAN intelligent controller. We will also introduce the concept of xApps and rApps which will then be detailed in the following parts.

Tutorial Abstract: Currently, one of the hot topics in the telecom world is Open RAN. In the legacy telco way of providing Radio Access Network (RAN,) there is a single black box and the internal interfaces within that box are closed and are in the hands of one vendor. Moving towards Open RAN, we are splitting the different functions of the base station into the centralized unit (CU), distributed unit (DU), and a remote unit (RU). The Open RAN, known as “O-RAN” is defined by O-RAN Alliance, as an entity, which mission is “to re-shape the RAN industry towards more intelligent, open, virtualized and fully interoperable mobile networks”. With the O-RAN approach, they can be developed by different vendors due to the open interfaces between them (including Open Fronthaul). In addition to that, the control of the radio networks is defined as an external entity and known as RAN intelligent controller (RIC). It allows performing optimization of the network or radio resources using radio resource management (RRM) or self-organizing networks (SON) functions. In the O-RAN concept, this is where the intelligence sits, by the means of artificial intelligence (AI) models for radio network automation. The algorithms for radio network control (i.e., RRM/SON control functions) that are incorporated within the RIC framework are known as “xApps”, and as such are independent of RIC and may be provided by a third party. The proposed tutorial addresses various aspects of O-RAN design, both theoretical and practical, starting from the introduction to the topic, the description of the prospective architecture and interfaces, and involved associations, and finishing with the practical implementations of selected xApps.

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