COSMO: O-RAN-Based Service Management and Orchestration for Cross-Technology Multi-Tenant Radio Access Networks
2026-06-03 • Networking and Internet Architecture
Networking and Internet Architecture
AI summaryⓘ
The authors present COSMO, a new platform designed to manage different types of wireless networks like 5G, 4G, and Wi-Fi under one system. COSMO lets multiple users share these networks fairly and according to agreed rules, called SLAs. It uses smart controllers to help manage network resources better and make sure promises to users are kept. Their tests show COSMO reduces rule-breaking from 21% to under 10%, making it a promising tool for future mixed wireless networks.
6GRANO-RAN5G NRLTEWi-FiNon-RT RICSLAmulti-tenancynetwork orchestration
Authors
M. Catalan-Cid, J. J. Aleixendri, J. Pueyo, P. Tomas, D. Camps-Mur
Abstract
The evolution toward 6G networks envisions a heterogeneous Radio Access Network (RAN) comprising diverse access technologies, such as private 5G, public 4G/5G, and Wi-Fi, managed by multiple stakeholders. While considerable research effort has been devoted to O-RAN-based frameworks enabling rApp and xApp implementation and validation, few works provide integrated support for cross-technology RAN orchestration, end-to-end multi-tenancy, and a unified subset of SMO functionalities, including Non-RT RIC components. This paper introduces COSMO, a novel RAN Service Management and Orchestration platform designed to support heterogeneous 3GPP (5G NR, LTE) and non-3GPP (Wi-Fi) access networks. COSMO enables cross-technology multi-tenancy, defined as the capability to allow multiple tenants to dynamically share heterogeneous RAN resources with explicit resource allocation guarantees based on Service Level Agreements (SLAs). This is achieved through management primitives that support flexible and on-demand resource allocation. Additionally, the platform includes a cross-technology Non-Real-Time RAN Intelligent Controller (Non-RT RIC) that enables the development of intelligent rApps for closed-loop control and network orchestration. Beyond its architectural design, COSMO improves resource utilization and operational flexibility through unified orchestration of heterogeneous multi-tenant RAN resources. Through prototyping and benchmarking, we demonstrate the effectiveness of COSMO in resource allocation, SLA enforcement, and scalability. In our prototype, the SLA-based rApp reduces SLA violation from approximately 21% to below 10% under dynamic traffic conditions in a heterogeneous RAN deployment including 5G, 4G, and Wi-Fi access networks. Our results confirm that COSMO offers an efficient solution for managing and orchestrating future multi-tenant cross-technology RAN environments.