TECHNOLOGY
INSIDE THE ARCHITECTURE
The O-RAN Alliance and the RIC
The promise of a genuinely open, multi-vendor network is impossible without a common blueprint and that’ s precisely the role of the O-RAN Alliance. The global community of operators and vendors defines the specifications that enable an open and intelligent Radio Access Network( RAN).
At the heart of O-RAN’ s architecture lies a groundbreaking component: the RAN Intelligent Controller( RIC), the softwaredefined“ brain” of the network. The RIC is divided into two complementary parts:
The Non-Real-Time RIC which operates on a timescale greater than one second. It runs applications( rApps) that use artificial intelligence and machine learning to perform network-wide analytics, train optimisation models and set operational policies.
The Near-Real-Time RIC which functions on a timescale between 10 milliseconds and one second. It hosts specialised microservices( xApps) that apply the policies from the Non-RT RIC to carry out real-time actions such as traffic steering, interference management and quality of service control.
The programmable layer transforms the RAN from a static, manually configured system into a dynamic, app-driven platform, effectively creating a marketplace for innovation where third-party developers can design and deploy applications to enhance network performance.
90 November 2025