Since the dawn of the mobile communications industry, Radio Access Networks (RAN) have been something of a black box: Communications Service Providers (CSP) would buy tightly integrated and proprietary hardware devices and radios from network equipment providers. The CSP would then rely on the equipment to ensure the network’s performance met customers’ needs. Higher network load meant acquiring additional costly gear and rolling out service trucks for time-consuming installations. That was fine for a time where mobile innovation moved at the speed of hardware. Two decades later, things are changing: with data being at least as valuable as oil, CSPs want to harness their network’s data to not only respond better to customer needs, but to make money. The RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) looks to be one to realize this ambition.

The RIC is one of several innovations incorporated into the O-RAN Alliance reference architecture. It offers a platform to run software applications that react to network data, allowing vendors to offer tools that optimize and monetize CSPs’ RAN. Along with a collection of innovative companies and leading CSPs, VMware is making this vision of an App Store-like experience for RAN data come to life.

VMware pioneered two industry firsts in its RIC platform:

• The Centralized RIC is used to run non-real-time RAN applications, known as rApps


• The Distributed RIC can run near-real-time applications, known as xApps

VMware recently partnered with Vodafone to demonstrate the impact the RIC can have in a real-world multi-vendor network. Using a Multi-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Out (MU-MIMO) scheduler xApp from Cohere Technologies, Vodafone was able to increase its utilization of its precious spectrum frequencies. The trial utilized Intel’s FlexRAN software, Capgemini Engineering’s 5G RAN CU and DU, and VMware’s RIC.
Heavy Reading analyst Gabriel Brown noted in a recent webinar on the topic that the RIC’s key innovation is in democratizing radio resource management. By opening up the RAN, the Vodafone RIC demonstration highlights the impact on a CSP’s network ROI.

The RIC provides an abstraction layer between the infrastructure, the various third-party software developers and vendors participating in an O-RAN implementation. All parties follow a set of normalized APIs to support multiple use cases. It is this ability to abstract away multi-vendor complexity that really accelerates the pace of RAN innovation. Access to RAN data will give CSPs another avenue to differentiate their services, and VMware’s RIC SDKs make it possible to tap into these resources and bring such innovation to life.

As a result of the SDK’s, more startups are already taking advantage of this opportunity:

• AirHop Communications uses both the centralized RIC and the distributed RIC to bring a wide range of automation and optimization use cases to operators managing O-RAN architectures. AirHop is developing xApps and rApps to address configuration management, interference mitigation, coverage and capacity optimization, and much more.


• Polte, is another example. They use the RIC to deliver precise positioning services leveraging 5G. With its xApp, location services improve to sub-meter precision, ideal for asset tracking, public safety and more use cases. Polte’s solution demonstrates just one path for service providers to monetize network data as a service to outside enterprises.  

While some view the RIC as a new incarnation of self-optimizing network (SON) functionality, its ability to respond in sub-second latency to network data paired with an easy-to-use SDK on VMware’s open platform enable use cases beyond that scope.

The SDK includes everything needed to simplify the process of developing and packaging new RAN apps, including:

• API definitions and specifications 


• Reference apps and starter code in multiple languages 


• Core libraries for several value-added capabilities to help accelerate xApp development 


• Custom resource definitions, schema, and examples 


• Optional build tools 


• Developer guide    

“We believe that true RAN innovation is possible only by opening the RAN up to a large ecosystem of vendors and empowering them to easily develop new applications and features for automating, optimizing, and monetizing the RAN,” said VMware’s Rakesh Misra. “[We] designed our RIC SDKs to do precisely this.”

If you would like to speak with us about the VMware RIC, we would love to meet with you and show you a demo in our MWC Barcelona 2022, Hall 3 booth 3M11.