Disaggregated Near-RT RIC Control Plane with Unified 5G DB for NS, MEC and NWDAF Integration

Abstract

The use-case of RAN Controller with MEC and Network Slicing integration by using unified 5G data collection and analytics is one of the key enablers for 5G networks to function based on the low latency requirements. Connecting these components are challenging for the operators due to the lack of single source of authority and unified data. O-RAN architecture extends the SDN controller concept of decoupling the control-plane (CP) from the user-plane (UP) by enhancing the traditional RAN functions with AI via RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC). However, disaggregating only CP and DP is not enough for the integration of the key enablers, indeed there is a need for disaggregation of CP of Near-RT RIC itself as well so that MEC, NS and NWDAF can connect in form of xApps which are the first anchor point of the authority and data handshake for time sensitive applications to be landed. In this paper, we proposed an architectural perspective focusing on the Near-RT RIC platform with the disaggregated CP enhancements and end-to-end combined xApp-rApp solution for smooth NS, MEC and NWDAF integration.