research-article

HexRIC: Building a Better near-Real Time Network Controller for the Open RAN Ecosystem

Authors:

Huu-Trung Thieu,

Nakjung ChoiAuthors Info & Claims

HotMobile '23: Proceedings of the 24th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications

Pages 15 - 21

https://doi.org/10.1145/3572864.3580329

Published: 22 February 2023 Publication History

Abstract

The Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) architecture has served as a key enabler for the programmable control of cellular networks through its introduction of the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC). However, the RIC solutions available today are hobbled by scalability issues, inaccessibility, and a general lack of robustness, thereby serving as an impediment to the widespread adoption of O-RAN. To that end, this paper introduces HexRIC- a purpose-built next-generation network controller for the O-RAN ecosystem. Key highlights of HexRIC include a robust messaging infrastructure, a machine learning operations framework, and support for O-RAN's flagship use cases such as RAN slicing. Furthermore, the paper also includes a comprehensive system evaluation addressing the key themes of scalability, ML model lifecycle management, and finegrained network control. The results thus obtained showcase that not only is HexRIC the most feature-complete control platform to date, it also offers a significant performance advantage over the prior art.

References

[1]

2021. Kubeflow KALE. https://github.com/kubeflow-kale/kale.

[2]

2021. O-RAN SC E Release. https://github.com/o-ran-sc

[3]

2022. Feature Store for Machine Learning (Feast). https://docs.feast.dev/

[4]

2022. Kubeflow Documentation. https://www.kubeflow.org/docs/.

[5]

2022. nanomsg-next-generation - light-weight brokerless messaging. https://github.com/nanomsg/nng

[6]

2022. Prometheus Documentation. https://prometheus.io/docs/

[7]

O-RAN Alliance. 2022. O-RAN Near-Real-time RAN Intelligent Controller Architecture & E2 General Aspects and Principles. Technical Report O-RAN.WG3.E2GAP-v02.02. Version 2.02.

[8]

O-RAN Alliance. 2022. O-RAN Near-RT RIC Architecture. Technical Report O-RAN.WG3.RICARCH-v03.00. Version 3.00.

[9]

O-RAN Alliance. 2022. O-RAN Use Cases Detailed Specification. Technical Report. Version 8.00.

[10]

Marcin Dryjański, Łukasz Kułacz, and Adrian Kliks. 2021. Toward Modular and Flexible Open RAN Implementations in 6G Networks: Traffic Steering Use Case and O-RAN xApps. Sensors 21, 24 (2021).

[11]

David Johnson, Dustin Maas, and Jacobus Van Der Merwe. 2021. NexRAN. In Proceedings of the 15th ACM Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds, Experimental evaluation & CHaracterization.

[12]

Ahan Kak, Van-Quan Pham, Huu-Trung Thieu, and Nakjung Choi. 2022. Demo: A Disaggregated O-RAN Platform for Network Slice Deployment and Assurance. In IEEE INFOCOM 2022 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS). 1--2.

[13]

Ahan Kak, Van-Quan Pham, Huu-Trung Thieu, and Nakjung Choi. 2022. Poster: Multi-RAT Network Slicing in the Open RAN Era. In 2022 IEEE 30th International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP). 1--2.

[14]

Ahan Kak, Van-Quan Pham, Huu-Trung Thieu, and Nakjung Choi. 2022. ProSLICE: An Open RAN-based approach to Programmable RAN Slicing. In GLOBECOM 2022 - 2022 IEEE Global Communications Conference. 1--6.

[15]

Sławomir Kukliński, Lechosław Tomaszewski, and Robert Kołakowski. 2020. On O-RAN, MEC, SON and Network Slicing integration. In 2020 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps). 1--6.

[16]

MinIO, Inc. 2022. MinIO High Performance Object Storage. https://min.io/docs/.

[17]

Navid Nikaein, Mahesh K. Marina, Saravana Manickam, Alex Dawson, Raymond Knopp, and Christian Bonnet. 2014. OpenAirInterface: A Flexible Platform for 5G Research. ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review 44, 5 (Oct 2014), 33--38.

Digital Library

[18]

O-RAN Alliance. 2022. O-RAN Architecture Description. Technical Specification (TS). Version 6.00.

[19]

O-RAN SC. 2022. Anomaly Detection. https://github.com/o-ran-sc/ric-app-ad.

[20]

Open Networking Foundation. 2022. SD-RAN 1.4 Release Notes. https://docs.sd-ran.org/master/release_notes/sdran_1.4.html.

[21]

Michele Polese, Leonardo Bonati, Salvatore D'Oro, Stefano Basagni, and Tommaso Melodia. 2022. Understanding O-RAN: Architecture, Interfaces, Algorithms, Security, and Research Challenges.

[22]

Jithesh Sathyan. 2016. Fundamentals of EMS, NMS and OSS/BSS. Auerbach Publishers, Incorporated.

[23]

Robert Schmidt, Mikel Irazabal, and Navid Nikaein. 2021. FlexRIC. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on emerging Networking EXperiments and Technologies. ACM.

Cited By

Kak APham VThieu HSheshadri RChoi N(2024)INTEGRan: Towards Vertical and Horizontal Integration for Programmable RAN Performance OptimizationIEEE INFOCOM 2024 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS)10.1109/INFOCOMWKSHPS61880.2024.10620794(1-6)Online publication date: 20-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/INFOCOMWKSHPS61880.2024.10620794
Marinova SLeon-Garcia A(2024)Intelligent O-RAN Beyond 5G: Architecture, Use Cases, Challenges, and OpportunitiesIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2024.336728912(27088-27114)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3367289
Couto RCruz PPacheco RSouza VCampista MCosta L(2024)A survey of public datasets for O-RAN: fostering the development of machine learning modelsAnnals of Telecommunications10.1007/s12243-024-01029-1Online publication date: 5-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12243-024-01029-1
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

HexRIC: Building a Better near-Real Time Network Controller for the Open RAN Ecosystem
1. Networks

Recommendations

Adaptive semi-soft handoff for Cellular IP networks

Various advances in technologies have led to a myriad of wireless mobile devices to ubiquitously connect to the internet. This creates a significant demand for seamless wireless network connectivity. The Cellular IP semi-soft handoff protocol has been ...
Processing capacity planning and optimisation of UMTS and beyond radio access network architectures by simulation

The tendency in future mobile networks consists in a rapid growth of Internet Protocol (IP)-based traffic and services. In contrast to this tendency, 3rd Generation (3G) cellular networks were designed assuming a predominance of circuit switched traffic ...
Key techniques and radio network planning in TD-SCDMA systems

Receiving significant support from China's government and enterprises in themobile communication industry federation, Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) has become the fastest growing 3G technology standard in China. ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

HotMobile '23: Proceedings of the 24th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications

February 2023

306 pages

ISBN:9798400700170

DOI:10.1145/3572864

Copyright © 2023 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

Sponsors

SIGMOBILE: ACM Special Interest Group on Mobility of Systems, Users, Data and Computing

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 22 February 2023

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

HotMobile '23

Sponsor:

SIGMOBILE

HotMobile '23: The 24th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications

February 22 - 23, 2023

California, Newport Beach

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 96 of 345 submissions, 28%

Upcoming Conference

HOTMOBILE '25

Sponsor:
sigmobile

The 26th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications

February 26 - 27, 2025

Palm Springs , CA , USA

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

5
Total Citations
View Citations
364
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)166
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)11

Reflects downloads up to 12 Sep 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Kak APham VThieu HSheshadri RChoi N(2024)INTEGRan: Towards Vertical and Horizontal Integration for Programmable RAN Performance OptimizationIEEE INFOCOM 2024 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS)10.1109/INFOCOMWKSHPS61880.2024.10620794(1-6)Online publication date: 20-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/INFOCOMWKSHPS61880.2024.10620794
Marinova SLeon-Garcia A(2024)Intelligent O-RAN Beyond 5G: Architecture, Use Cases, Challenges, and OpportunitiesIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2024.336728912(27088-27114)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3367289
Couto RCruz PPacheco RSouza VCampista MCosta L(2024)A survey of public datasets for O-RAN: fostering the development of machine learning modelsAnnals of Telecommunications10.1007/s12243-024-01029-1Online publication date: 5-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12243-024-01029-1
Thieu HPham VKak AChoi N(2023)Demystifying the Near-real Time RIC: Architecture, Operations, and Benchmarking InsightsIEEE INFOCOM 2023 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS)10.1109/INFOCOMWKSHPS57453.2023.10225852(1-8)Online publication date: 20-May-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/INFOCOMWKSHPS57453.2023.10225852
Kak APham VThieu HChoi N(2023)RANSight: Programmable Telemetry for Next-Generation Open Radio Access NetworksGLOBECOM 2023 - 2023 IEEE Global Communications Conference10.1109/GLOBECOM54140.2023.10437430(5391-5396)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/GLOBECOM54140.2023.10437430
Couto RCruz PCampista MCosta L(2023)Using Public Datasets to Train O-RAN Deep Learning Models2023 2nd International Conference on 6G Networking (6GNet)10.1109/6GNet58894.2023.10317705(1-8)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/6GNet58894.2023.10317705

View Options

Get Access

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents