Internship Projects/Mentors

Title	Cloud-Native O-RAN
Status	This should be set to "Pending TSC Approval" initially. Once it has been approved, Change to Pending TAC Approval Change to this status once TAC has approved your project Set this status when you have selected your Intern
Difficulty	Select a difficulty level and delete the others (e.g. code development would be considered less challenging than research-focused)

Description

5G/6G wireless networks based on O-RAN architecture will have O-RAN Network Functions (NFs) deployed on the O-cloud infrastructure. The cloud infrastructure and the NF orchestration is managed by the SMO using the O-RAN O2 interface. Open-source projects such as O-RAN SC, ONAP, Nephio, OAI are actively engaged in developing open-source software for O-RAN networks, in alignment with guidance from the O-RAN Open-Source Focus Group.

Building on the progress of open-source implementation of O-RAN NFs, the open-source community is now focusing on implementation of cloud-native O-RAN NF (e.g., O-CU, O-DU) as well as the SMO functionality to manage them via the O2 interface. There is an opportunity to set up an implementation in a university testbed to participate in the open-source projects, and enable research in cloud-native O-RAN (e.g., methods of monitoring the energy consumption of the cloud infrastructure and the NFs)

In this project the student will leverage open-source code and

implement an example O-cloud infrastructure hosting one or more O-RAN NF(s) (e.g. O-CU, O-DU)
develop a setup and tutorial to enable multiple users to replicate the cloud-native open-source implementation and contribute to open source
study and develop software to support management/data collection of the infrastructure and NFs from the SMO, using energy consumption as an example

Additional Information

Following links are to open-source projects related to O-cloud/SMO and O-RAN Alliance specifications

O-RAN SC INF project for O-cloud: https://wiki.o-ran-sc.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1179726
O-RAN SC SMO project: NF Orchestration Using SMO: https://wiki.o-ran-sc.org/download/attachments/110788981/NF%20Orchestration%20Using%20SMO%20%28Design%20details%29.pdf?version=1&modificationDate=1707960856308&api=v2
O-RAN Architecture Description 11.0, O-RAN.WG1.OAD-R003-v11.00, O-RAN Downloads (orandownloadsweb.azurewebsites.net)
O-RAN Cloud Architecture and Deployment Scenarios for O-RAN Virtualized RAN 6.0
O-RAN.WG6.CADS-v06.00 O-RAN Downloads (orandownloadsweb.azurewebsites.net)

Learning Objectives

The student will learn:

to work with the industry experts in the open-source community
to deploy and test open-source code, and contribute back to the open-source projects
to integrate open-source work with other university/industry research initiatives
from interactions with industry/academia experts and other interns

Expected Outcome

Implement an example O-cloud infrastructure in Rutgers Winlab (e.g. 3 servers) using methods aligned with LF/LFN open-source projects.
We intend to make this available to users globally to perform academic research
Demonstrate instantiation of sample O-RAN NF(s) on O-cloud
Implement sample SMO functionality for cloud management/orchestration
Demonstrate data collection from cloud/NF(s) through O2 interface (e.g. energy consumption of O-DU)

Relation to LF Networking

This project enhances the wireless networking open-source ecosystem. It will use code from, and enhance, LF/LFN projects such as O-RAN SC, ONAP, and Nephio. Note that there are ongoing efforts to harmonize the work in various LF/LF projects in areas related to the O-RAN O-Cloud and Cloud management in the O-RAN SMO.

Education Level

Preference will be given to graduate students, and students with interest in pursuing this work for their graduate research. The student can work remotely or join other interns onsite in North Brunswick, NJ.

Skills

Programming experience, especially in cloud and network-related applications in languages such as: Python, Java, C/C++, Go
Knowledge/experience of cloud systems, particularly Kubernetes/Docker
Knowledge/experience with unix/linux, IP networking
Experience with open-source, software configuration management, software development preferred
Experience with network interfaces and APIs preferred
Knowledge of wireless networks, network management is a plus

Future plans

The results of this project will contribute back to the open-source projects. We plan for this work to integrate with Rutgers WINLAB research projects. The learnings from each project feeds into other projects and will be captured as part of the knowledge base to help train future contributors.

Preferred Hours and Length of Internship

Full-time (40 hours a week for 12 weeks during the summer)

Mentor(s) Names and Contact Info

Click Here to Apply

In the Click Here to Apply add link with this format:

mailto:mentorship@lfnetworking.org;your@email.com?subject=LFN Mentorship: <Mentorship Title>

N. K. Shankaranarayanan, shankar@winlab.rutgers.edu, Rutgers Winlab

Ivan Seskar, seskar@winlab.rutgers.edu, Rutgers Winlab

Seshu Mudiganti, seshukumar.mudiganti@windriver.com, Windriver

Martin Skorupski, martin.skorupski@highstreet-technologies.com, highstreet technologies