The traditional separation between RAN and core becomes increasingly limiting when radio resources, mobility and service requirements must be adapted in near real time. Distributed RAN deployments with multiple radio heads and shared or centralized processing make some decisions too interdependent to treat RAN and core as isolated domains.
Our work brings user-related core-network control closer to near-real-time RAN control, allowing local communication behavior to respond to current network conditions and service needs.
Research Topics
- Dynamic network topology control
Adapt RAN configuration and topology to current load,
radio conditions and service requirements, considering performance, reliability, security and energy efficiency. - User distribution
Dynamically distribute devices across overlapping radio resources, including administrative handovers and near-real-time radio-resource allocation. - User-centric policies
Provide UEs with network information and policy indications that support more informed user-centric RAN operation.
| © Fraunhofer FOKUS
Fraunhofer FOKUS is implementing near-real-time RIC applications for topology control and user distribution, together with the necessary core-network functions and AI-based optimization mechanisms.
The broader research question is how far mobility, policy, user distribution and radio-resource decisions should be coordinated across the RAN-core boundary rather than optimized independently.