Towards efficient conflict mitigation in the converged 6G Open RAN control plane

With the centralization of the RAN control functionality, a very large number of near real-time network optimization use cases have emerged. Until now, each of them has been implemented and validated as isolated network management functions, named xApps in Open RAN terminology. To be able to progress towards realistic, commercially deployable functionality, comprehensive conflict mitigation is needed, because the complete isolation of these xApps would result in conflicting decisions and instability. In this article, we study how the majority of these use cases can be implemented harmoniously, to create an enhanced RAN control plane, underlining the functionality required from the central units of the RAN, the grouping, and the interaction of the network management decision. Analyzing the gap existing in the O-RAN architecture, we identify the functionality needed and propose a management framework. Furthermore, we present an implementation roadmap for the development of such functionality as part of the Fraunhofer FOKUS Open5GCore toolkit, as a reference for how such functionality can be prototyped, validated, and integrated with external algorithms easily, to benefit from the large body of academic research.