An Open RAN Development Framework with Network Energy Saving rApp Implementation

Open Radio Access Network (RAN) is the enabling technology to introduce interoperability and intelligence for the fifth/sixth generation ($5 \mathrm{G} / 6 \mathrm{G}$) of mobile communication systems. We first describe an Open RAN architecture and then design and develop a framework that efficiently supports the implementation and testing of rApp prototypes. Specifically, the development framework provides the functionalities of non-realtime RAN Intelligent Controller (Non-RT RIC) and a simplified O1 interface with E2 Node functions that perform 5G RAN simulation and dataset generation. In addition, the front/backend components are implemented to provide visualization related to E2 Node operation and energy saving performance. To validate the proposed framework, we design and implement an rApp prototype that supports network energy saving feature using an Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) model for Open RAN systems. We perform a conformance test and verify the efficiency of the framework through visualization results, and demonstrate that the proposed framework can be extended to the realization of a variety of O-RAN use cases.