QACM: QoS-Aware xApp Conflict Mitigation in Open RAN
Abdul Wadud, Fatemeh Golpayegani, Nima Afraz
TL;DR
This work addresses intra-component conflicts among xApps in Open RAN's Near-RT-RIC by introducing QoS-Aware Conflict Mitigation (QACM). It formulates QACM as a constrained optimization within a Conflict Management System (CMS) and uses KPI-to-utility conversion via z-score with KPI prediction to balance competing QoS requirements. Compared to state-of-the-art methods NSWF and EG, QACM demonstrates improved QoS satisfaction for more xApps under both priority and non-priority scenarios, supported by case studies and simulations. The approach offers a scalable, vendor-agnostic framework for conflict resolution in Open RAN, with plans to enhance KPI prediction and real-world validation in future work.
Abstract
The advent of Open Radio Access Network (RAN) has revolutionized the field of RAN by introducing elements of native support of intelligence and openness into the next generation of mobile network infrastructure. Open RAN paves the way for standardized interfaces and enables the integration of network applications from diverse vendors, thereby enhancing network management flexibility. However, control decision conflicts occur when components from different vendors are deployed together. This article provides an overview of various types of conflicts that may occur in Open RAN, with a particular focus on intra-component conflict mitigation among Extended Applications (xApps) in the Near Real Time RAN Intelligent Controller (Near-RT-RIC). A QoS-Aware Conflict Mitigation (QACM) method is proposed that finds the optimal configuration of conflicting parameters while maximizing the number of xApps that have their Quality of Service (QoS) requirements met. We compare the performance of the proposed QACM method with two benchmark methods for priority and non-priority cases. The results indicate that our proposed method is the most effective in maintaining QoS requirements for conflicting xApps.