Techniques presented herein may provide Distributed Unit (DU) failover techniques for a virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) architecture. In one example, a method may include maintaining, by a management node for a vRAN, service information for a plurality of distributed unit components for the vRAN in which the service information identifies, at least in part, service characteristics and failover rules for the vRAN. The method may further include determining a failure of a particular DU component of the plurality of DU components; and reassigning one or more particular RUs currently assigned to the particular DU component to one or more other DU components based on the service characteristics maintained in the service information and particular failover rules identified in the service information that are associated with each of the one or more particular RUs that are re-assigned.

To provide a low latency near RT RIC, some embodiments separate the RIC's functions into several different components that operate on different machines (e.g., execute on VMs or Pods) operating on the same host computer or different host computers. Some embodiments also provide high speed interfaces between these machines. Some or all of these interfaces operate in non-blocking, lockless manner in order to ensure that critical near RT RIC operations (e.g., datapath processes) are not delayed due to multiple requests causing one or more components to stall. In addition, each of these RIC components also has an internal architecture that is designed to operate in a non-blocking manner so that no one process of a component can block the operation of another process of the component. All of these low latency features allow the near RT RIC to serve as a high speed IO between the E2 nodes and the xApps.

Apparatuses, systems, and methods for a wireless device avoiding reselection or handover to cells of different operators. The wireless device may attach to a first base station of a first network operator. The wireless device may determine that a neighboring base station is associated with a second network operator. Based on determining the neighboring base station is associated with the second network operator, the wireless device may exclude the third base station from handover or reselection.

Apparatuses, systems, and methods for a wireless device avoiding reselection or handover to cells of different operators. The wireless device may attach to a first base station of a first network operator. The wireless device may determine that a neighboring base station is associated with a second network operator. Based on determining the neighboring base station is associated with the second network operator, the wireless device may exclude the third base station from handover or reselection.

An apparatus and method comprising implementing a near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller, and detecting an event triggering a need for transfer of control of at least one access node from said near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller to a target near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller. An address of the target near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller is determined, and an interface between the near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller and the target near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller is established. The transfer of the control of the at least one access node from said near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller to the target near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller is carried out.

An apparatus and method comprising implementing a near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller, and detecting an event triggering a need for transfer of control of at least one access node from said near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller to a target near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller. An address of the target near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller is determined, and an interface between the near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller and the target near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller is established. The transfer of the control of the at least one access node from said near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller to the target near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller is carried out.

Some embodiments provide a method for performing radio access network (RAN) functions in a cloud at a medium access control (MAC) scheduler application that executes on a machine deployed on a host computer in the cloud. The method receives data, via a RAN intelligent controller (RIC), from a first RAN component. The method uses the received data to generate a MAC scheduling output. The method provides the MAC scheduling output to a second RAN component via the RIC.

A method for providing for network function (NF) fallback to a recovered network function NF repository function (NRF) includes, at an NF including at least one processor, generating an NF register message including an indication to notify the NF of recovery of a first NRF after a failure of the first NRF. The method further includes transmitting the NF register message to the first NRF. The method further includes communicating with the first NRF and detecting failure of the first NRF. The method further includes, in response to detecting failure of the first NRF, initiating communications with a second NRF that is a geo-redundant mate of the first NRF. The method further includes receiving notification of recovery of the first NRF and falling back to communicating with the first NRF.

To provide a low latency near RT RIC, some embodiments separate the RIC's functions into several different components that operate on different machines (e.g., execute on VMs or Pods) operating on the same host computer or different host computers. Some embodiments also provide high speed interfaces between these machines. Some or all of these interfaces operate in non-blocking, lockless manner in order to ensure that critical near RT RIC operations (e.g., datapath processes) are not delayed due to multiple requests causing one or more components to stall. In addition, each of these RIC components also has an internal architecture that is designed to operate in a non-blocking manner so that no one process of a component can block the operation of another process of the component. All of these low latency features allow the near RT RIC to serve as a high speed IO between the E2 nodes and the xApps.

To provide a low latency near RT RIC, some embodiments separate the RIC's functions into several different components that operate on different machines (e.g., execute on VMs or Pods) operating on the same host computer or different host computers. Some embodiments also provide high speed interfaces between these machines. Some or all of these interfaces operate in non-blocking, lockless manner in order to ensure that critical near RT RIC operations (e.g., datapath processes) are not delayed due to multiple requests causing one or more components to stall. In addition, each of these RIC components also has an internal architecture that is designed to operate in a non-blocking manner so that no one process of a component can block the operation of another process of the component. All of these low latency features allow the near RT RIC to serve as a high speed IO between the E2 nodes and the xApps.