Network architecture for open radio access network

Abstract

The application provides a network architecture of an open wireless access network, comprising: a site A and a site B respectively established by at least two operators; the site A and the site B are respectively provided with non-shared service management and arrangement modules; the service management and arrangement modules are respectively internally provided with non-real-time RAN intelligent controllers; the site A and the site B are respectively provided with shareable internal network elements which are in communication connection through a plurality of interoperation interfaces; wherein, the site A and the site B are further respectively provided with shareable near-real-time RAN intelligent controllers. The application further provides a method for realizing resources in the network architecture and equipment and a computer readable storage medium thereof.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to a network architecture for an open wireless access network, and a method, apparatus, and computer-readable storage medium for implementing resources in the network architecture. Background Technology

[0002] As is well known, traditional cellular wireless access networks typically use proprietary network equipment, which comes from a few specific network equipment vendors. The construction of these wireless networks has always been the largest component of operators' overall network costs.

[0003] With the advent of the 5G era, the capital expenditure cost of 5G networks has increased dramatically due to the high price per 5G base station, dense site requirements, and large transmission demands. Furthermore, the maximum power consumption of a single 5G active antenna is far higher than that of a 4G remote radio module, and 5G active antenna units need to be deployed independently from existing 2G / 3G / 4G passive antennas, making rooftop space even more scarce and increasing tower rental expenses. Therefore, overall, under the same base station scale, the operating cost of 5G networks will be several times higher than that of 4G networks. This has led to the development of a network construction and sharing model among multiple operators. 5G network co-construction and sharing can reduce costs, increase efficiency, and improve asset operation efficiency.

[0004] With the rise of software-defined networking and network function virtualization, global mobile network operators have been pushing for the adoption of Open RAN architecture in 5G, hoping to remove the limitations of being "locked" into proprietary RAN equipment. This would allow any organization to create interoperable RAN products, thereby supporting more new vendors to enter the market and reduce costs. Therefore, O-RAN, or Open Radio Access Network, envisions a highly flexible, low-cost wireless network that is "open," "open source," and "intelligent." It is a concept based on the interoperability and standardization of RAN elements, including unified interconnection standards for white-box hardware and open-source software elements from different vendors. Open RAN standardization includes work on network controllers, management and orchestration frameworks, and interfaces connecting all network elements in the RAN infrastructure. The RAN intelligent controller is responsible for implementing policies and automating the network. The O-RAN standard supports 3GPP standard definitions, and therefore its architecture also supports co-construction and sharing scenarios; however, there are currently no considerations for co-construction and sharing of newly introduced modules such as Non-RT RIC and SMO.

[0005] In existing shared use cases, it is assumed that there are two co-construction and sharing operators. The network management system sharing application is set up in the service management and orchestration module to establish a trust and supervision mechanism for shared server resources. The two co-construction and sharing parties establish remote connection access through O1 interface, O2 interface and SLA between their respective service management and orchestration modules. However, under this architecture, the O-CU, O-DU facilities and frequency resources of the two operators are not shared, only the O-RU facilities are shared. Summary of the Invention

[0006] In view of this, the present invention provides an open wireless access network architecture, comprising: site A and site B established by at least two operators respectively; site A and site B are respectively provided with a non-shared service management and orchestration module; the service management and orchestration module is respectively equipped with a non-real-time RAN intelligent controller; site A and site B are respectively provided with a shareable internal network element, which is connected for communication through multiple interoperability interfaces; wherein, site A and site B are also respectively provided with a shareable near real-time RAN intelligent controller.

[0007] According to an advantageous design of the invention, the interoperability interface includes an O1 interface, an O2 interface, an A1 interface, an E2 interface, an E1 interface, an F1 interface, an open fronthaul interface, and an SLA interface.

[0008] According to an advantageous design of the invention, the service management and orchestration module is connected to the near real-time RAN intelligent controller via the A1 interface.

[0009] According to an advantageous design of the present invention, the service management and orchestration module connects to the internal network element through the O1 interface and / or the O2 interface, thereby enabling intelligent management of the internal network element.

[0010] According to an advantageous design of the invention, the internal network element is a radio unit, a distribution unit, and a centralized unit.

[0011] According to an advantageous design of the invention, the O1 interface, the O2 interface, and the SLA interface are established remotely between the service management and orchestration module by the site A and the site B.

[0012] According to an advantageous design of the present invention, the service management and orchestration modules each have a built-in network management system shared application.

[0013] According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for realizing resource sharing in the network architecture of the open radio access network is proposed. Assuming that both site A and site B are currently running energy-saving use cases and are in neighboring cells, when site A's traffic volume is low enough to enter an energy-saving state, it notifies site B's service management and orchestration module or non-real-time RAN intelligent controller via the O1 or O2 interface. This enables site B's near-real-time RAN intelligent controller to consider the offloaded traffic from site A when evaluating traffic volume, thereby adjusting site B's energy-saving strategy. When site A has entered an energy-saving state, site B carries a portion of site A's offloaded traffic. When site B's traffic volume is saturated, it notifies site A's service management and orchestration module via the O1 or O2 interface, thereby waking site A from the energy-saving state.

[0014] According to another aspect of the invention, an electronic device is provided, comprising: at least one processor; and a memory storing at least one program, which, when executed by the at least one processor, enables the at least one processor to implement a method for resource sharing in the network architecture of the open wireless access network.

[0015] According to another aspect of the invention, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, on which a computer program is stored, which, when executed by a processor, implements a method for achieving resource sharing in the network architecture of the open wireless access network.

[0016] In summary, this application provides an open radio access network architecture, as well as a method, device, and computer-readable storage medium for implementing resources within this network architecture. By sharing a near real-time RAN intelligent controller, radio unit, distribution unit, and centralized unit among multiple operators, while service management and orchestration modules and non-real-time RAN intelligent controllers are not shared, each operator can manage its own server resources and policies. This can help multiple operators implementing shared RAN architectures achieve differentiated strategies. Attached Figure Description

[0017] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention or the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0018] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the network architecture of the open wireless access network provided by the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0019] To enable those skilled in the art to better understand the technical solutions of the present invention, the technical solutions of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0020] Figure 1 This invention provides an open wireless access network architecture, comprising: site A and site B established by at least two operators respectively; site A and site B are each equipped with a non-shared Service Management and Orchestration Module (SMO); the two Service Management and Orchestration Modules SMO-A and SMO-B each have a built-in non-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (NRT-RIC); site A and site B are each equipped with a shareable internal network element, which communicates through multiple interoperability interfaces; wherein site A and site B are also each equipped with a shareable near real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (nRT-RIC).

[0021] According to an advantageous design of the invention, the interoperability interface includes an O1 interface, an O2 interface, an A1 interface, an E2 interface, an E1 interface, an F1 interface, an Open FH fronthaul interface, and an SLA interface.

[0022] According to an advantageous design of the present invention, the service management and orchestration modules SMO-A and SMO-B are connected to the near real-time RAN intelligent controllers nRT-RIC-A and nRT-RIC-B via the A1 interface. The non-real-time RAN intelligent controller NRT-RIC is deployed within the service management and orchestration module SMO, and its main responsibility is to provide policies, ML model management, and a large amount of information to the near real-time RAN intelligent controllers nRT-RIC-A and nRT-RIC-B via the A1 interface, thereby achieving intelligent RAN optimization. The near real-time RAN intelligent controller primarily provides near real-time radio resource control and optimization to the base station based on data collected via the E2 interface.

[0023] As previously mentioned, the non-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (NRT-RIC) resides within the Service Management and Orchestration Module (SMO), which is a combination of multiple management services. Beyond the NRT-RIC, the SMO also includes the management and orchestration of the Open Cloud (O-Cloud) and the FCAPS services for O-RAN network elements. FCAPS stands for Fault, Configuration, Billing, Performance, and Security; these are various management categories used for maintaining and protecting O-RAN Virtual Network Functions (VNFs).

[0024] According to an advantageous design of the present invention, the service management and orchestration modules SMO-A and SMO-B are connected to the internal network element through the O1 interface and / or the O2 interface, thereby enabling intelligent management of the internal network element.

[0025] The OA1 interface serves as the interface between the Service Management and Orchestration Module (SMO) and internal network elements. It enables the SMO to intelligently configure and manage near-RT RIC and O-RAN internal network elements. Its main functions include performance management, configuration management, fault management, file management, communication monitoring, signaling tracing, wireless network function discovery, and PNF software management. The O2 interface is used for cloud computing platform expansion and is the communication method between the SMO and its residing O-Cloud. Network operators connected to the O-Cloud can operate and maintain their networks by reconfiguring network elements, updating systems, or using either the O1 or O2 interface.

[0026] According to an advantageous design of the invention, the internal network elements are a radio unit (O-RU), a distribution unit (O-DU), and a centralized unit (O-CU). The centralized unit (O-CU) includes a control plane (CU-CP) and a user plane (CU-UP) connected via an E1 interface. The distribution unit (O-DU) and the centralized unit (O-CU) are connected via an F1 interface; one centralized unit (O-CU) can also be connected to multiple distribution units (O-DUs) via the F1 interface. The Open Fronthaul Interface (Open FH) is the management interface between the radio unit (O-RU) and the distribution unit (O-DU).

[0027] According to an advantageous design of the present invention, the site A and the site B establish the O1 interface, the O2 interface and the SLA interface remotely between the service management and orchestration modules SMO-A and SMO-B, wherein the SLA interface is a service level agreement interface.

[0028] According to an advantageous design of the present invention, the service management and orchestration modules SMO-A and SMO-B each have a built-in network management system sharing application (NMS sharing APP).

[0029] According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for implementing resource sharing in a network architecture of an open wireless access network is proposed, wherein,

[0030] Assuming that both site A and site B are currently running energy-saving use cases and are in neighboring cells, when site A's traffic volume is low enough to enter energy-saving mode, it notifies site B's Service Management and Orchestration Module (SMO-B) or the non-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (NRT-RIC) via the O1 or O2 interface. This allows site B's near real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (NRT-RIC) to consider the offloaded traffic from site A when assessing traffic volume, thereby adjusting site B's energy-saving strategy. When site A has entered energy-saving mode, site B carries some of the offloaded traffic from site A. When site B's traffic volume is saturated, it notifies site A's Service Management and Orchestration Module (SMO-A) via the O1 or O2 interface, thereby waking up site A to exit energy-saving mode.

[0031] According to another aspect of the invention, an electronic device is provided, comprising: at least one processor; and a memory storing at least one program, which, when executed by the at least one processor, enables the at least one processor to implement a method for resource sharing in the network architecture of the open wireless access network.

[0032] According to another aspect of the invention, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, on which a computer program is stored, which, when executed by a processor, implements a method for achieving resource sharing in the network architecture of the open wireless access network.

[0033] In summary, this application provides an open radio access network architecture, as well as methods, equipment, and computer-readable storage media for implementing resources within this architecture. By sharing radio units, distribution units, and centralized units among multiple operators, while keeping service management and orchestration modules and non-real-time RAN intelligent controllers separate, each operator can manage its own server resources and policies, enabling differentiated strategies for shared network infrastructure. Furthermore, under this architecture, operators A and B each construct non-shared Service Management and Orchestration Modules (SMOs), sharing near-real-time RAN intelligent controllers (nRT-RIC, O-CU, O-DU, O-RU) facilities and functions. Since O-RAN is fully compatible with 3GPP protocols, operators A and B can support spectrum sharing under this architecture. The Service Management and Orchestration Modules (SMOs) flexibly implement network equipment operation and management as needed.

[0034] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or some of the steps, systems, or apparatuses disclosed above, and their functional modules / units, can be implemented as software, firmware, hardware, or suitable combinations thereof. In hardware implementations, the division between functional modules / units mentioned in the above description does not necessarily correspond to the division of physical components; for example, a physical component may have multiple functions, or a function or step may be performed collaboratively by several physical components. Some or all physical components may be implemented as software executed by a processor, such as a central processing unit, digital signal processor, or microprocessor, or as hardware, or as an integrated circuit, such as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Such software may be distributed on a computer-readable medium, which may include computer storage media (or non-transitory media) and communication media (or transient media). As is known to those skilled in the art, the term computer storage media includes volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storing information (such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data). Computer storage media include, but are not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technologies, CD-ROM, digital versatile disc (DVD) or other optical disc storage, magnetic cartridges, magnetic tape, disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to store desired information and can be accessed by a computer. Furthermore, it is well known to those skilled in the art that communication media typically contain computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in modulated data signals such as carrier waves or other transmission mechanisms, and may include any information delivery medium.

[0035] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, and not to limit them; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that modifications can still be made to the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments, or equivalent substitutions can be made to some or all of the technical features; and these modifications or substitutions do not cause the essence of the corresponding technical solutions to deviate from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A system for an open wireless access network, the system comprising: Site A and Site B are established by at least two different operators; Both site A and site B are equipped with a non-shared Service Management and Orchestration Module (SMO). The service management and orchestration modules SMO-A and SMO-B each have a built-in non-real-time RAN intelligent controller NRT-RIC. Site A and Site B are each equipped with a shareable internal network element, and the shareable internal network element is connected to communicate through multiple interoperability interfaces; Its features are, Both site A and site B are also equipped with a shareable near real-time RAN intelligent controller nRT-RIC. The interoperability interface includes an O1 interface, an O2 interface, and an SLA interface. Site A and Site B establish the O1 interface, the O2 interface, and the SLA interface remotely between the service management and orchestration modules SMO-A and SMO-B.

2. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The interoperability interfaces also include the A1 interface, E2 interface, E1 interface, F1 interface, and the Open FH fronthaul interface.

3. The system according to claim 2, characterized in that, The service management and orchestration modules SMO-A and SMO-B are connected to the near real-time RAN intelligent controller nRT-RIC via the A1 interface.

4. The system according to claim 2, characterized in that, The service management and orchestration modules SMO-A and SMO-B are connected to the internal network elements through the O1 interface and / or the O2 interface, thereby enabling intelligent management of the internal network elements.

5. The system according to claim 4, characterized in that, The internal network elements are the radio unit O-RU, the distribution unit O-DU, and the centralized unit O-CU.

6. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The service management and orchestration modules SMO-A and SMO-B each have a built-in network management system shared application.

7. A method for implementing resource sharing in an open wireless access network system according to any one of claims 1-6, characterized in that, Assume that both site A and site B are currently running energy-saving use cases and are in neighboring cells. When the traffic volume of site A is low and it can enter the energy-saving state, the service management and orchestration module SMO-B or the non-real-time RAN intelligent controller NRT-RIC of site B is notified through the O1 interface or O2 interface. This enables the near real-time RAN intelligent controller NRT-RIC of site B to take into account the offloaded traffic under site A when evaluating the traffic volume, thereby adjusting the energy-saving strategy of site B. When site A has entered energy-saving mode, site B carries part of the offloaded traffic from site A. When the traffic volume of site B is saturated, it notifies the service management and orchestration module SMO-A of site A through the O1 or O2 interface, thereby waking up site A to exit the energy-saving mode.

8. An electronic device, comprising: At least one processor; A memory storing at least one program that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to implement the method of claim 7.

9. A computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, the program, when executed by a processor, implementing the method of claim 7.

Images