Requirements for the Non-RT RIC project¶
Find detailed description of what Non-RT RIC is on this page.
There are functional requirements emitted by O-RAN WG2 for the Non-RT RIC, which are the following:
- Non-RT RIC shall support data retrieval and analysis; the data may include performance, configuration or other data related to the application (recommended data shown in required data section for different use cases).
- Non-RT RIC shall support relevant AI/ML model training based on the data in 1. for non-real-time optimization of configuration parameters in RAN or Near-RT RIC, as applicable for the use case.
- Non-RT RIC shall support relevant AI/ML model training based on the data in 1. for generating/optimizing policies and intents to guide the behavior of applications in Near-RT RIC or RAN, as applicable for the use case.
- Non-RT RIC shall support training of relevant AI/ML models based on the data in 1. to be deployed/updated in Near-RT RIC as required by the applications.
- Non-RT RIC shall support performance monitoring and evaluation.
- Non-RT RIC shall support a fallback mechanism to prevent drastic degradation/fluctuation of performance, e.g. to restore to the previous policy or configuration.
The non-functional requirements are the following ones:
- Non-RT RIC shall not update the same policy or configuration parameter for a given Near-RT RIC or RAN function more often than once per second.
- Non-RT RIC shall be able to update policies in several Near-RT RICs.
Moreover, there are functional requirements regarding the A1 interface:
- A1 interface shall support communication of policies/intents from Non-RT RIC to Near-RT RIC.
- A1 interface shall support AI/ML model deployment and update from Non-RT RIC to Near-RT RIC.
- A1 interface shall support communication of enrichment information from Non-RT RIC to Near-RT RIC.
- A1 interface shall support feedback from Near-RT RIC for monitoring AI/ML model performance.
- A1 interface shall support the policy/intents feedback from Near-RT RIC to Non-RT RIC.
A1 policy procedure¶
As for A-release, the methods are as follows:
| A1 policy procedure | Single policy method | Multiple policies method |
| Create policy | PUT | |
| Query policy | GET | GET (sequence of *) |
| Update policy | PUT | |
| Delete policy | DELETE | |
| Notify policy | POST | POST |
Policy Agent Overview¶
The Policy Agent maintains a transient repository of the following items to support R-Apps:
- All Near-RT RICs in the network. This information is configured using the ONAP CDS database (which is using the Cloudify Consul database).
- All Policy types for all Near-RT RICs
- All configured Policy instances in the network
It provides an NBI for the R-Apps (and for the Control Panel) for policy management. This is a REST API. As an option, policy management can also be done via asynchronous messages through ONAP/Dmaap. The NBI provides support for an R-APP to locate the correct Near-RT RIC based on identifiers as defined in O1.
The agent monitors all Near-RT RICs and recovers from data inconsistencies, which may happen when (for instance) an Near-RT RIC restarts.
The R-Apps can be monitored so that their Policies can be automatically removed when an R-App is stopped/removed.
On its southbound side the agent can connect to a number of different A1 providers:
Directly to the Non-RT RIC:
- OSC API, which is influenced by the A1 standard
- The Non-RT RIC simulator, which supports the A1 standard with a number of not yet CRs included.
To an ONAP style controller.
