Open RAN KPI Monitoring: A Dynamic Energy-Aware Framework

Abstract

Open RAN emerged to break out of vendor lock-in constraints, enabling specialized control-plane applications with well-defined open and standardized interfaces. In a monitoring-oriented Real-Time Radio Access Network Intelligent Controller, xApps typically collect Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at fixed intervals, which can overload the system when very frequent reporting is required. This paper introduces a new Open RAN KPI monitoring framework that outperforms fixed-interval solutions by dynamically adjusting the KPI collection timescale at runtime, using Risk Analysis of monitored KPI accuracy loss to balance monitoring needs and resource usage. A prototype built with OpenAirInterface and FlexRIC shows reduced E2 signaling overhead and significant energy savings. Extrapolating to large-scale scenarios, the framework demonstrates potential savings of up to 608.48 kWh per day (18,254.4 kWh per month), equivalent to an estimated reduction of 0.99 tons of $CO_{2}$ emissions.