FALCON: A Framework for Fault Prediction in Open RAN Using Multi-Level Telemetry

O-RAN has brought in deployment flexibility and intelligent RAN control for mobile operators through its disaggregated and modular architecture using open interfaces. However, this disaggregation introduces complexities in system integration and network management, as components are often sourced from different vendors. In addition, the operators who are relying on open source and virtualized components -- which are deployed on commodity hardware -- require additional resilient solutions as O-RAN deployments suffer from the risk of failures at multiple levels including infrastructure, platform, and RAN levels. To address these challenges, this paper proposes FALCON, a fault prediction framework for O-RAN, which leverages infrastructure-, platform-, and RAN-level telemetry to predict faults in virtualized O-RAN deployments. By aggregating and analyzing metrics from various components at different levels using AI/ML models, the FALCON framework enables proactive fault management, providing operators with actionable insights to implement timely preventive measures. The FALCON framework, using a Random Forest classifier, outperforms two other classifiers on the predicted telemetry, achieving an average accuracy and F1-score of more than 98%.