US 12483479 B1Patent grantUnited States

Open RAN Cloud Orchestration

Official patent title

System and method for a cloudification service model for next O-RAN generation

Arabic title: نظام وطريقة لنموذج خدمة التحويل إلى السحابة للجيل القادم من O-RAN

Invention

Problem

Cloud-based and virtualized radio access networks divide control across RAN and cloud-management domains. Indirect coordination can add control-loop latency and lead to over- or under-allocation of computing and network resources.

Why it matters

Lower orchestration latency and better resource matching can improve service responsiveness, infrastructure utilization, deployment speed, and operating cost in open mobile networks.

Approach

The architecture adds an Open Intelligent Cloud Controller and an open OC1 interface for direct messaging among the cloud controller, Non-RT-RIC, and Near-RT-RIC while coordinating infrastructure and deployment-management services.

Who may benefit

Potential beneficiaries include mobile-network operators, O-RAN vendors, cloud-platform providers, telecom orchestrator developers, private-network integrators, and network-automation researchers.

Potential value

The model places cloud infrastructure and deployment control in a direct loop with RAN intelligent controllers and supports adding, removing, scaling, or reallocating resources through open interfaces and cloud applications.

Background

Open RAN disaggregates radio, distributed, centralized, and management functions so components from different vendors can interoperate. Cloud deployment adds elasticity but also creates additional orchestration loops between RAN intelligence, infrastructure management, and network-function deployment. Slow or duplicated control can waste resources and delay service changes. The disclosure proposes a dedicated cloud-intelligence controller and direct interface to Near-RT and Non-RT RIC functions, aiming to coordinate cloud and radio decisions with fewer intermediate exchanges.

Technology overview

A RAN node includes antennas, radio units, baseband, O-CU, and O-DU functions connected to a cloud platform. The SMO framework contains Non-RT-RIC and an Open Intelligent Cloud Controller; Near-RT-RIC handles faster RAN allocation. The OC1 interface carries direct messages among controllers. The cloud controller manages infrastructure-management and deployment-management services, invokes federated O-Cloud and network-function orchestration, and can request more resources, release excess resources, or optimize allocation during deployment and software updates.

Potential applications

O-RAN cloud orchestration.
Virtualized base-station deployment.
Telecom resource scaling and optimization.
Private and public 5G/6G network automation.
Multi-vendor cloud-RAN integration research.

Evidence-supported advantages

Creates direct cloud-to-RIC communication.
Coordinates infrastructure and deployment management.
Supports over- and under-allocation correction.
Addresses deployment and software-update workflows.
Uses an open-interface service model.

Development stage

A logical architecture, interfaces, controller roles, and orchestration workflows are described; standards interoperability, implemented latency, resource savings, security, failure recovery, and carrier-scale performance were not established. The development stage was not independently verified.

Commercial opportunity

The architecture may interest O-RAN software, SMO, and telecom-cloud vendors. Productization requires alignment with current O-RAN specifications, interoperability plugfests, measurable control-loop latency and resource savings, failure and rollback behavior, policy conflict handling, security and trust across domains, observability, multi-vendor lifecycle tests, carrier-scale performance, and operator integration tooling.

Patent classifications

WIPO IPC

H04L41/0895Transmission of digital information, e.g. telegraphic communication
H04L41/0816Transmission of digital information, e.g. telegraphic communication

CPC

H04L41/0895Transmission of digital information, e.g. telegraphic communication
H04L41/0816Transmission of digital information, e.g. telegraphic communication
H04W28/16Wireless communication networks

Inventors

First inventorMohamad A. Alawad

Keywords

O-RAN
cloud RAN
SMO
Near-RT-RIC
Non-RT-RIC
cloud orchestration
resource allocation
open interface

Patent document and drawings

The patent publication is mapped to this record. Patent drawings remain within that publication; no separately cleared public media package has been supplied.