NF-Level Northbound Fault Reporting Microservice for O-RAN Reliability

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Solution Overview

Problem

The existing fault management systems in 5G O-RAN architectures face challenges in efficient event notification delivery to Northbound Management Systems due to resource constraints and the inability to independently manage core logic and reporting agents, leading to increased resource usage and limitations in high availability and load balancing.

Innovation Solution

Implementing a separate fault reporting microservice independent of the Fault Management Microservice (FM MS) to handle event reporting, allowing independent management of high availability and load balancing, and enabling fine-grained control over resources and retry mechanisms.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Device complexity

If fault management and event reporting are integrated in a single microservice, then system complexity is reduced, but resource usage increases and high availability management becomes limited

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesystem complexityVSAvoidresource usage

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent divides the fault management system into separate microservices: the Fault Management Microservice (FM MS) handles core fault management logic, while the Fault Reporting Microservice (FR MS) handles event reporting independently. This segmentation allows each service to be optimized and managed separately, reducing overall resource usage while maintaining functionality.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The event reporting functionality is extracted from the fault management microservice and placed in a separate fault reporting microservice. This extraction enables independent management of reporting resources and improves the ability to implement high availability and load balancing specifically for reporting operations.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

2Ease of manufacture

If fault management and event reporting are integrated in a single microservice, then deployment is simpler, but high availability and load balancing management becomes less flexible

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedeployment simplicityVSAvoidhigh availability management flexibility

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

By segmenting the system into separate FM MS and FR MS, each service can be deployed and managed independently. This allows different deployment strategies, high availability configurations, and load balancing approaches to be applied to each service based on its specific requirements.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The separate microservice architecture enables dynamic and flexible management of high availability and load balancing for the fault reporting function. The FR MS can be scaled, replicated, and configured independently to meet changing demands without affecting the core FM MS.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

3Reliability

If retry mechanisms are implemented in the integrated fault management system, then reporting reliability improves, but resource overhead increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvereporting reliabilityVSAvoidresource overhead

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The retry mechanism is extracted and implemented specifically in the fault reporting microservice, allowing retry policies to be applied only to reporting operations without impacting core fault management resources. This targeted approach improves reporting reliability while minimizing overall resource overhead.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

4Adaptability or versatility

If transport mechanisms are updated in the integrated system, then system adaptability improves, but core fault management operations are affected

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetransport mechanism adaptabilityVSAvoidcore FM MS stability

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

The transport mechanism functionality is extracted and placed in the fault reporting microservice, which is independent of the core fault management microservice. This allows transport mechanisms to be updated, modified, or replaced without affecting the stability or operations of the core FM MS, thereby improving adaptability while maintaining stability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentUS12463860B2Optimal fault management reporting via NF level northbound fault reporting agent

Publication Date: 2025.11.04 RAKUTEN SYMPHONY INC

AI summary

Provided are a method, computer readable medium, and system for reporting data to a Northbound Management System (NBMS) via a Network Function (NF) level Northbound Fault reporting Microservice (MS) in an NF of a Radio Access Network (RAN). The method includes: receiving, by a Fault Management (FM) MS from at least one other MS of the NF, events data; processing, by the FM MS, the events data; obtaining, by the Fault reporting MS, the processed data; and reporting, from the Fault reporting MS to the NBMS, the processed data.