Frequency Scanning xApps: O-RAN RIC and GNU Radio with RTL-SDR use case

Iago Diogenes do Rego, Lucas I. C. Medeiros, Vitor Lopes, Vinicius Filho, Vicente A. de Sousa Jr., Eduardo Aranha, Allan Medeiros, Marcelo A. C. Fernandes, Ramon dos Reis Fontes, Augusto J. Venancio Neto, Guilherme Pupio

DOI: 10.14209/sbrt.2022.1570817297

Evento: XL Simpósio Brasileiro de Telecomunicações e Processamento de Sinais (SBrT2022)

Keywords:

Abstract

The O-RAN Alliance conceived an open architecture model that aims at driving new levels of openness in the radio access network (RAN). Allied to the trend of softwarized networks, the open-access network covers most of the telecommunications system when combined with the Software Defined Radio (SDR) paradigm. O-RAN defines the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) as a platform based on microservices for implementing RAN monitoring and control techniques, called xApps. This work uses the O-RAN open-source platform to exemplify its accessibility and versatility to implement xApps with control strategies of a simplified RAN based on GNU Radio. A frequency scanning algorithm is proposed as a use case to demonstrate how SDR platforms allied to the O-RAN paradigm can be easily used in teaching and research initiatives.

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