SCALING DATAPATH PODS OF A RIC IN A RAN

1 . A method of increasing system capacity of a RIC (RAN (radio access network) intelligent controller) in a RAN, the RIC comprising a first datapath pod for forwarding communications between a first set of RAN applications connected to the RIC and a first set of base station components connected to the RIC, the method comprising:

using the first datapath pod to forward communications between the first set of RAN applications and the first set of base station components;

determining that the first datapath pod has insufficient resources for forwarding traffic between the first set of base station components and the first set of RAN applications;

based on said determining, configuring a second datapath pod on the RIC for forwarding traffic between the first set of base station components and the first set of RAN applications; and

assigning (i) a first subset of the first set of base station components to the first datapath pod and (ii) a second subset of the first set of base station components to the second datapath pod.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein configuring the second datapath pod on the RIC for forwarding traffic between the first set of base station components and the first set of RAN applications further comprises configuring a second set of RAN applications.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the first and second sets of RAN applications are in a full-mesh with the first and second datapath pods such that (i) each RAN application in the first set of RAN applications connects to the first datapath pod and to the second datapath pod and (ii) each RAN application in the second set of RAN applications connects to the first datapath pod and to the second datapath pod.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein:

the first datapath pod forwards traffic (i) between the first set of RAN application and the first set of base station components and (ii) between the second set of RAN applications and the first set of base station components; and

the second datapath pod forwards traffic (i) between the first set of RAN application and the first set of base station components and (ii) between the second set of RAN applications and the first set of base station components.

5 . The method of claim 4 further comprising receiving a set of access control lists that specify which RAN applications in the first and second sets of RAN applications are allowed to access which base station components in the first set of base station components.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein each access control list in the set (i) is defined for at least one RAN application in the first and second sets of RAN applications and (ii) specifies one or more base station components from the first set of base station components to which the at least one RAN application is allowed to access.

7 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the second set of RAN applications comprises a second set of RAN application instances that are duplicate instances of the first set of RAN applications.

8 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining that a second set of base station components have established connections to the RIC; and

based on said determining, assigning (i) a first subset of the second set of base station components to the first datapath pod and (ii) a second subset of the second set of base station components to the second datapath pod.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein based on said assigning, (i) the first datapath pod forwards traffic between the first set of RAN applications and the first subset of the second set of base station components and (ii) the second datapath pod forwards traffic between the first set of RAN applications and the second subset of the second set of base station components.

10 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining that a second set of base station components have established connections to the RIC;

determining that the first and second datapath pods have insufficient resources for forwarding traffic between both (i) the first set of base station components and the first set of RAN applications and (ii) the second set of base station components and the first set of RAN applications;

based on said determining, configuring a third datapath pod on the RIC for forwarding traffic between the second set of base station components and the first set of RAN applications; and

assigning the second set of base station components to the third datapath pod.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first datapath pod comprises (i) a plurality of datapath threads for processing traffic between the first set of RAN applications and the first set of base station components and (ii) one control thread for configuring the plurality of datapath threads.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first datapath pod comprises (i) one datapath thread for processing traffic between the plurality of RAN applications and the plurality of base station components and (ii) one control thread for configuring the one datapath thread.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second datapath pod comprises an instance of the first datapath pod.

14 . A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for execution by a set of processing units, the program for increasing system capacity of a RIC (RAN (radio access network) intelligent controller) in a RAN, the RIC comprising a first datapath pod for forwarding communications between a first set of RAN applications connected to the RIC and a first set of base station components connected to the RIC, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

using the first datapath pod to forward communications between the first set of RAN applications and the first set of base station components;

determining that the first datapath pod has insufficient resources for forwarding traffic between the first set of base station components and the first set of RAN applications;

based on said determining, configuring a second datapath pod on the RIC for forwarding traffic between the first set of base station components and the first set of RAN applications; and

assigning (i) a first subset of the first set of base station components to the first datapath pod and (ii) a second subset of the first set of base station components to the second datapath pod.

15 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the set of instructions for configuring the second datapath pod on the RIC further comprises a set of instructions for configuring at least a second set of RAN applications.

16 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 15 , wherein:

the first and second sets of RAN applications are in a full-mesh with the first and second datapath pods such that (i) each RAN application in the first set of RAN applications connects to the first datapath pod and to the second datapath pod and (ii) each RAN application in the second set of RAN applications connects to the first datapath pod and to the second datapath pod;

the first datapath pod forwards traffic (i) between the first set of RAN application and the first subset of base station components and (ii) between the second set of RAN applications and the first subset of base station components; and

the second datapath pod forwards traffic (i) between the first set of RAN application and the second subset of base station components and (ii) between the second set of RAN applications and the second subset of base station components.

17 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16 , the program further comprising a set of instructions for receiving a set of access control lists, wherein each access control list in the set (i) is defined for at least one RAN application in the first and second sets of RAN applications and (ii) specifies one or more base station components from the first set of base station components to which the at least one RAN application is allowed to access.

18 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , the program further comprising sets of instructions for:

determining that a second set of base station components have established connections to the RIC;

determining that the first and second datapath pods have insufficient resources for forwarding traffic between both (i) the first set of base station components and the first set of RAN applications and (ii) the second set of base station components and the first set of RAN applications;

based on said determining, configuring a third datapath pod on the RIC for forwarding traffic between the second set of base station components and the first set of RAN applications; and

assigning the second set of base station components to the third datapath pod.

19 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the first datapath pod comprises (i) a plurality of datapath threads for processing traffic between the first set of RAN applications and the first set of base station components and (ii) one control thread for configuring the plurality of datapath threads.

20 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the first datapath pod comprises (i) one datapath thread for processing traffic between the plurality of RAN applications and the plurality of base station components and (ii) one control thread for configuring the one datapath thread.