Explainable AI in 6G O-RAN: A Tutorial and Survey on Architecture, Use Cases, Challenges, and Future Research

Understand

The recent O-RAN specifications promote the evolution of RAN architecture by function disaggregation, adoption of open interfaces, and instantiation of a hierarchical closed-loop control architecture managed by RAN Intelligent Controllers (RICs) entities.

• This paves the road to novel data-driven network management approaches based on programmable logic.
• Aided by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), novel solutions targeting traditionally unsolved RAN management issues can be devised.
• Nevertheless, the adoption of such smart and autonomous systems is limited by the current inability of human operators to understand the decision process of such AI/ML solutions, affecting their trust in such novel tools.