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US-20260129480-A1 - REAL-TIME RIC ARCHITECTURE FOR OPEN RAN NETWORKS

US20260129480A1US 20260129480 A1US20260129480 A1US 20260129480A1US-20260129480-A1

Abstract

A system for providing real-time services and functions in an Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) architecture, includes: a first physical node comprising at least one first processor configured to execute instructions to implement an O-RAN centralized unit (O-CU); at least one second physical node comprising at least one second processor configured to execute instructions to implement: an O-RAN distributed unit (O-DU), and a real-time (RT) RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) connected to the O-DU via an interface terminating at the RT RIC and having a latency of less than 10 ms, wherein the RT RIC is a software platform configured to host applications for controlling at least the O-DU over a real-time control loop with a latency of less than 10 ms.

Inventors

  • Antonio Forenza
  • Nagendra Bykampadi
  • Awn MUHAMMAD

Assignees

  • Rakuten Mobile, Inc.
  • RAKUTEN SYMPHONY, INC.

Dates

Publication Date
20260507
Application Date
20251229

Claims (12)

  1. 1 . A system for providing real-time services and functions in an Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) architecture, the system comprising: a first physical node comprising at least one first processor configured to execute instructions to implement an O-RAN centralized unit (O-CU); at least one second physical node comprising at least one second processor configured to execute instructions to implement: an O-RAN distributed unit (O-DU), and a real-time (RT) RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) connected to the O-DU via an interface terminating at the RT RIC and having a latency of less than 10 ms; an O-RAN radio unit (O-RU); at least one third physical node comprising at least one third processor configured to execute instructions to implement a non-real-time (Non-RT) RIC operating at a time scale of greater than 1 second; and at least one fourth physical node comprising at least one fourth processor configured to execute instructions to implement a near-real-time (Near-RT) RIC operating at a time scale of 10 ms to 1 second, wherein the RT RIC is a software platform configured to host applications for controlling at least the O-DU over a real-time control loop with a latency of less than 10 ms.
  2. 2 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the RT RIC is provided within the O-DU.
  3. 3 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the RT RIC is external to the O-DU.
  4. 4 . The system according to claim 1 , further comprising: a Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) framework, within which the Non-RT RIC is located, configured to manage and orchestrate RAN elements; and a first interface connecting the RT RIC to the SMO to implement at least one management service.
  5. 5 . The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a second interface connecting the RT RIC to the Non-RT RIC and through which Non-RT RIC is configured to provide at least one of policy-based guidance, machine learning (ML) management, and enrichment information to the RT RIC for optimizing the RAN.
  6. 6 . The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a third interface connecting the RT RIC to the Near-RT RIC and through which the Near-RT RIC is configured to provide at least one of policy-based guidance, machine learning (ML) management, and enrichment information to the RT RIC for optimizing the RAN.
  7. 7 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the RT RIC is configured to perform at least one of report, insert, control, and policy services with respect to the O-DU via the interface.
  8. 8 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the RT RIC is configured to perform at least one of interface management and service update functions with respect to the O-DU via the interface.
  9. 9 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the RT RIC is configured to host at least one application to integrate at least one Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) model to Radio Resource Management (RRM) functions of the O-DU to make decisions and/or inferences in real-time.
  10. 10 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the RT RIC is configured to host at least one application for implementing functionalities for cell-free massive MIMO in real-time.
  11. 11 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the RT RIC is configured to host at least one application for utilizing a MAC scheduler of the O-DU in real-time.
  12. 12 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the RT RIC is configured to host at least one application for implementing a zero trust security framework in real-time.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/910,862, filed Sep. 12, 2022, which is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/US2022/025868, filed Apr. 22, 2022, claiming priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/325,886, filed Mar. 31, 2022, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference. BACKGROUND A radio access network (RAN) is an important component in a telecommunications system, as it connects end-user devices (or user equipment) to other parts of the network. The RAN includes a combination of various network elements (NEs) that connect the end-user devices to a core network. Traditionally, hardware and/or software of a particular RAN is vendor specific. Open RAN (O-RAN) technology has emerged to enable multiple vendors to provide hardware and/or software to a telecommunications system. To this end, O-RAN disaggregates the RAN functions into a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), and a radio unit (RU). The CU is a logical node for hosting Radio Resource Control (RRC), Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP), and/or Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) sublayers of the RAN. The DU is a logical node hosting Radio Link Control (RLC), Media Access Control (MAC), and Physical (PHY) sublayers of the RAN. The RU is a physical node that converts radio signals from antennas to digital signals that can be transmitted over the FrontHaul to a DU. Because these entities have open protocols and interfaces between them, they can be developed by different vendors. FIG. 1 illustrates a related art O-RAN architecture. Referring to FIG. 1, RAN functions in the O-RAN architecture are controlled and optimized by a RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC). The RIC is a software-defined component that implements modular applications to facilitate the multivendor operability requiin the O-RAN system, as well as to automate and optimize RAN operations. The RIC is divided into two types: a non-real-time RIC (Non-RT RIC) and a near-real-time RIC (Near-RT RIC). The Non-RT RIC is the control point of a non-real-time control loop and operates on a timescale greater than 1 second within the Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) framework. Its functionalities are implemented through modular applications called rApps, and include: providing policy based guidance and enrichment across the A1 interface, which is the interface that enables communication between the Non-RT RIC and the Near-RT RIC; performing data analytics; Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) training and inference for RAN optimization; and/or recommending configuration management actions over the O1 interface, which is the interface that connects the SMO to RAN managed elements (e.g., Near-RT RIC, O-RAN Centralized Unit (O-CU), O-RAN Distributed Unit (O-DU), etc.). The Near-RT RIC operates on a timescale between 10 milliseconds and 1 second and connects to the O-DU, O-CU (disaggregated into the O-CU control plane (O-CU-CP) and the O-CU user plane (O-CU-UP)), and an open evolved NodeB (O-eNB) via the E2 interface. The Near-RT RIC uses the E2 interface to control the underlying RAN elements (E2 nodes) over a near-real-time control loop. The Near-RT RIC implements four services with respect to the E2 nodes (O-CU, O-DU, and O-eNB): report (request the node to report a function-specific value setting), insert (instruct the node to activate a user plane function), control (instruct the node to activate a control plane function), and policy (set a policy parameter on one of the activated functions). Further, the Near-RT RIC hosts xApps to implement functions such as interference mitigation, load balancing, security, etc. The two types of RICs work together to optimize the O-RAN. For example, the Non-RT RIC provides the policies, data, and AI/ML models enforced and used by the Near-RT RIC for RAN optimization. The SMO framework, within which the Non-RT RIC is located, manages and orchestrates RAN elements. Specifically, the SMO manages and orchestrates what is referred to as the O-Ran Cloud (O-Cloud). The O-Cloud is a collection of physical RAN nodes that host the RICs, O-CUs, and O-DUs, the supporting software components (e.g., the operating systems and runtime environments), and the SMO itself. In other words, the SMO manages the O-Cloud from within. As set forth above, the intelligent management of O-RAN functions in the related art can only be performed for events and resources with a response time of no less than 1 second in the case of the Non-RT RIC, and 10 milliseconds in the case of the Near-RT RIC. That is, in the related art, the minimum latency between the E2 nodes and Near-RT RIC is more than 10 ms. Such a high latency loop impedes the usage of AI/ML and other multivendor intelligent management and controls for real-time operations and controls, such as within the O-DU control loop shown in FIG. 1. SUMMARY