TOWARDS XAPP BASED ORAN ENHANCEMENT FOR MILITARY 5G USE CASES

Abstract

Current tactical radio networks are not well designed for the low latency data sharing that will be necessary to support proposed strategies such as Joint All-Domain Command and Control, Distributed Maritime Operations, and Expeditionary Advance Base Operations. 5th generation (5G) wireless technology would be much better suited for the projected future military information environment for its ability to support low-latency data sharing and large numbers of users concurrently with dedicated network slices for different warfighting functions, allowing data and users to be aggregated and resourced as needed for different mission sets. However, before 5G can be employed on the battlefield, it must be upgraded to make it safe and reliable for the tactical environment. This will require flexible methods for monitoring and modifying the cellular network’s behavior. This thesis is organized around two research papers that are pending publication. The first is a position paper that presents a novel Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) enabled 5G enhancement that supports core decision delegation. The second is a technical report that presents a detailed development guide for extending an open-source ORAN implementation with custom interface monitoring and control capabilities as required by core decision delegation and other advanced security solutions.