On O-RAN, MEC, SON and Network Slicing integration

tags: 5G Reading

Date : 2023-01-13

Metadata

paper link
Kukliński, S., Tomaszewski, L., & Kołakowski, R. (2020, December). On O-RAN, MEC, SON and network slicing integration. In 2020 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

Take away

The study has described O-RAN, SON, MEC and network slicing technologies, emphasizing synergies between them, but also identifying overlapping components of their architectures.

Summary

• The presented analysis of O-RAN, SON, MEC and Network Slicing shows overlaps and complementarities between them. Their proper integration with a new decomposition can bring essential benefits it terms of removal of redundant functional blocks and providing overall synergy. However, a new functional decomposition is required to reduce the overall complexity and allow for cross-layer operations.

Note

• The integration of O-RAN, SON, MEC and Network Slicing Structure
  
• The study introduces the goals for each endpoint and intregrates them in each of the combination.
  • SON and O-RAN integration: The usage of the same servers (hosts or edge data center), monitoring databases and the ability of cross-operations; the SON decisions can be reused by xApps.
  • MEC and O-RAN integration: MEC hosts can be combined with the near-RT RIC hosts and the MEC-based CP services can be O-RAN services. Each near-RT RIC/MEC in a layer hosts or edge data center should contain the MEC Platform (MEP) where MEAO can also orchestrate MEC UP functions.
  • Network Slicing and O-RAN integration:
    • The slice xApps have to be defined in NR slice template (a new feature, currently absent in 3GPP NR slicing)
    • Each slice needs a separate partition of the database containing information about the NR nodes and attached UEs.
    • UE attachment to slices, in line with 3GPP specifications, can be done by NSSF and UDM

    • The E2 interface has to be modified to support NS by the PRB scheduler. The end-to-slice template should define the interactions between NR xApps with the 5GC sub-network slice counterparts, solving that way lack of cooperation between O-RAN (xApps) and 5GC. The CU/DU nodes should be modified to support NS.

• Due to the architecture difference between each component, there are some interfaces needed to be shared or even defined.