Radio Edge Cloud (REC)

Attributes

Description

Informational

Type

New

Industry Sector

Telco networks

Business driver

Optimizing a radio network is a complex task considering that we want to 

• Use the available radio spectrum, front haul and back haul network capacity, and signaling capacity optimally 

• Provide optimal quality of experience considering the application type, user subscription, and user mobility 

• Be able to collect diagnostic data for fault analysis and performance optimization 

To address these needs, the O-RAN Alliance is defining the Radio Intelligent Controller (RIC) and new interfaces towards the LTE/5G Radio Access Network (RAN). Especially, the RIC has the E2 interface towards the RAN Centralized Unit (CU), and the A1 interface towards an orchestration system such as ONAP. This allows for more intelligence in managing the radio resources. 

Especially, the RIC has a Radio Information Store database with generic information about radio resources, it supports third-party applications with access towards the RAN, and it has a high-speed, high-capacity message bus.

Business use cases

As an operator, I want to  

• Deploy an LTE/5G network as the components RRH, DU, CU, and RIC to leverage the benefits of standard hardware and software infrastructures at the edge of the network 

• Promote an ecosystem of interchangeable components in the RAN  

• Enable new machine-learning based algorithms for optimizing radio access  

Some use cases that the RIC enables  

• Sampling Channel Quality Indicators to get a better understanding of the radio network quality in different locations  

• It supports collecting and storing detailed event logs for troubleshooting and performance optimization 

• Especially, the 5G network new radios allow fast-speed beamforming. Therefore, it is possible to use intelligent algorithms to guide beamforming with different parameters 

• There are also other tunable parameters in the radio network related to radio capacity allocation and power saving 

All of these allow for more optimal resource allocation which will benefit the end users with better quality of service. 

The O-RAN: Towards an Open and Smart RAN. O-RAN Alliance White Paper. Available from https://www.o-ran.org
 lists as use cases:

per-UE controlled 

• Load balancing 

• RB Management (radio band?) 

• Interference detection  

• Interference mitigation 

In addition, it enables 

• QoS management 

• Connectivity management 

• Seamless handover control 

Business Cost - Initial Build Cost Target Objective

The RIC has different deployment models which have slightly different cost implications: 

• It can be co-located with the RAN CU  

• It can be co-located with the Orchestration&Automation system

• It can be a standalone system
  

In the first case, as the RIC will run on the same infrastructure as the RAN CU itself, it will meet all the performance requirements. In the second case, the RIC is some distance from the RAN. It is running on cheaper hardware in a datacenter, but since its performance requirements are stricter than that of the Orchestration system, it may require a different infrastructure layer.

Business Cost – Target Operational Objective

For Example:

1.Edge Cloud deployable at Central offices with 7 servers in a single rack should incur low operational costs per year

2. In-place upgrade of the Edge cloud should be supported without impacting the availability of the edge applications

3. Edge Solution should have role based access controls, Single Pane of Glass control, administrative and User Based GUIs to manage all   deployments.

4. The automation should also support zero touch provisioning and   management tools to keep operational cost lower

Security need

Regulations

The Edge cloud solution should   meet all the industry regulations of   data privacy, telco standards   (NEBS), etc.,

Other restrictions

Consider the power restrictions of   specific location in the design (example - Customer premise)

Additional details

Case Attributes

Description

Informational

Type

New

Blueprint Family - Proposed   Name

Use Case

RIC

vRAN

Blueprint proposed Name

Initial POD Cost (capex)

Scale & Type

x86 OCP Open Edge servers x 6

Applications

Power Restrictions

Infrastructure orchestration

Airship

Redfish

ONAP

SDN

Workload Type

Additional Details

Submitter to provide additional   use case details