ALAP: Availability- and Latency-Aware Protection for O-RAN: A Deep Q-Learning Approach

Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) is a critical use case in 5G and B5G networks enabling applications such as Augmented Reality (AR)-assisted surgery, vehicle-to-everything communications, and smart grids to consistently deliver the promised Quality of Service to the end-users. The intelligence of the 5G core has made such applications possible, and the O-Radio Access Network (O-RAN) has extended this intelligence to Radio Access Networks (RANs) through its openness, cloudification, and ability to host machine learning models at every layer. However, the cloudification of O-RAN introduces challenges, such as securing availability and ensuring latency for URLLC. In this work, we propose an Availability- and Latency-Aware O-RAN Virtual Network Function (VNF) Protection (ALAP) solution. ALAP offers a shared VNF protection scheme based on deep Q-learning, efficiently providing this protection while minimizing the number of VNF backup components compared to dedicated protection schemes. Our solution protects against resource blockages and alleviates operational costs for network service providers. In addition to these objectives, ALAP ensures that the network meets URLLC's strict availability and end-to-end latency constraints. ALAP has shown promising results in how quickly it can learn to optimize these objectives and in its capability to achieve its goals on large-scale O-RAN deployments.