Tag: RAN automation

Rimedo Labs, together with i14y Lab, synthesized the standardization efforts from 3GPP, ETSI, and O-RAN ALLIANCE into the unified O-RAN E2E EE Testing Framework. The proposed framework brings SMO/Non-RT RIC and rApps into the equation, enabling evaluation of the tradeoff between running RAN automation algorithms and their impact on RAN. In this blog post, we demonstrate the implementation of the E2E EE Testing Framework in practice. We cover the PC measurements of multipleVNFs. We present the relevant tools and discuss the results obtained in i14y Lab while using a Dell R750 server hosting rApp Lab (a “Lightweight Non-RIC”) and communicating with Keysight RICTest emulating the RAN.

Recently, the O-RAN automation market has been shifting toward the SMO/Non-RT RIC solutions. At the same time, due to the complexity of current systems, operators demand dynamic, intelligent, context-aware network automation. According to the O-RAN architecture, this can be realized by dedicated rApps residing in SMO/Non-RT RIC, typically utilizing AI/ML tools. This whitepaper provides an overview of the RAN automation with SMO and rApps. First, the SMO/Non-RT RIC architecture in O-RAN is introduced. It is followed by discussions on two promising use cases of RAN automation: traffic steering and beamforming optimization. The whitepaper addresses both general aspects and the design of related rApps, along with performance results.