1 of 6

O-RAN Curriculum & Cloud-Native O-RAN

​

1

Team: Ayden Wheless, Joseph Malkasian, Rahul Biju, Sree Harshitha J

​

Advisors: Ivan Seskar, Tracy Van Brakle

​

Winlab Summer 2025 Internship

2 of 6

Meet

the team

Ayden Wheless

Intern

Joseph Malkasian

Intern

Rahul Biju

Intern

Sree Harshitha J

Intern

I am from Annapolis, Maryland and am currently a rising senior at the United States Naval Academy. I am a Cyber Operations major I am mainly interested in the emergence of Zero Trust Networks and Zero Trust Policy.

I am from Annapolis, Maryland and am currently a sophomore at Anne Arundel Community College majoring in Computer Science. My main interest is in developing software to support government/DoD operations.

I am a graduate student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University. My academic focus is on VLSI design and wireless systems, with hands-on experience in digital hardware validation and software testing.

I am a graduate student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers, with work experience in LTE RAN and EPC nodes testing. My major interests include data networking, cloud computing, and cellular networks.

2

3 of 6

O-RAN Curriculum

Purpose: Students will gain an understanding of the key principles driving Open RAN, its disaggregated architecture, the importance of open interfaces, and its potential impact on the future of mobile networks; through lectures and hands-on training.

​

Course Objectives: Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

  • Explain the core motivations and principles behind Open RAN.
  • Describe the basic disaggregated architecture of Open RAN (RU, DU, CU).
  • Identify the significance of open interfaces in enabling interoperability.
  • Discuss the role of virtualization and cloudification in Open RAN.
  • Recognize the potential benefits and key challenges of Open RAN adoption.
  • Understand the ongoing standardization efforts and the relevant industry organizations.

​

Progress: Began researching on Radio Access Networks in order to be able to teach the topics to other students. Website is created.

​

4 of 6

Cloud-native O-RAN

Purpose

​

The main purpose of the project is

  • To implement an O-RAN cloud-native system.
  • The system hosts and manages RAN functions such as rApp (RAN Application) for monitoring KPIs (SINR).
  • Use open-source tools (Kubernetes and Docker) and cloud technologies.

​

Progress

​

  • Reading the O-RAN Alliance documentation.
  • Trying to implement the O-RAN architecture for cloud.
  • In further weeks work more on cloud O-RAN.

5 of 6

Next Steps

O-RAN Curriculum

​

Cloud-native O-RAN

​

Gain understanding of:

○ Fundamentals of Radio Access Networks (RAN): Basic components and functions.

​

○ Evolution of RAN architectures (brief overview of 2G-5G).

​

○ Limitations of traditional RAN: Vendor lock-in, inflexibility, cost.

​

○ The emergence of Open RAN: Drivers, goals, and potential benefits.

​

○ Key industry players and organizations (O-RAN Alliance, TIP).

​

○ How to implement DNS on website

​

​

  • In simple as we are running some components of O-RAN in the cloud, so the layer is named as O-Cloud.

​

  • The RU layer (Cell tower) of real-world is monitored by DU, CU, and SMO framework layers which are operated in cloud.

​

  • The SMO framework, which consists rApp, gives us the KPIs of RU or cell tower.

6 of 6

Thank You!