Tag: Traffic Steering

This blog post discusses in detail two options for notification of the TS-xApp on the ES actions from the O-RAN specifications perspective. The first option is to utilize the A1 interface to send policies with a “FORBID” clause for cells that will be switched off, to indicate TS-xApp that users should be removed from this cell. The second approach is to utilize the E2SM-CCC, where the TS-xApp listens to the changes in O-CES Management Function.

In this blog post, we show how the utilization of both Traffic Management rApp and Traffic Steering xApp could help in V2X scenarios. We also emphasize the use of enrichment information, made available through O-RAN, that suits specifically to vehicular services, such as car platoon geolocation or emergency situation notifications. The flexibility offered by the O-RAN architecture allows for optimized resource management through policy control in companion with EI when dynamic changes occur on the road. This is analyzed within the context of specific O-RAN use cases related to V2X.

Rimedo Labs integrated a Traffic Steering xApp into the VMware dRIC. Rimedo’s Policy-Controlled Traffic Steering xApp running on the VMware Distributed RIC incorporates both service and mobility load balancing to avoid congestion, improve user experience and make the network more energy efficient. Rimedo’s xApp was the winner of the inaugural rAppathon RIC application developer competition hosted by VMware and Intel at MWC 2023.

The O-RAN Alliance specifies certain use cases with requirements that provide a landscape for the development of xApps. This post provides an overview of the use cases and discusses in more details one of them, namely Traffic Steering. This use case is being developed in various open source implementations as one of the initial practical applications within O-RAN framework.