# A Survey on Open Radio Access Networks: Challenges, Research Directions, and Open Source Approaches

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.09125 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.09125/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 19 Aug 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [Intent-Based Network for RAN Management with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.14230/) (2025)
- [AI5GTest: AI-Driven Specification-Aware Automated Testing and Validation of 5G O-RAN Components](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.10111/) (2025)
- [ML-Enabled Open RAN: A Comprehensive Survey of Architectures, Challenges, and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.01239/) (2026)
- [Rogue Cell: Adversarial Attack and Defense in Untrusted O-RAN Setup Exploiting the Traffic Steering xApp](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.01816/) (2025)
- [The LLM as a Network Operator: A Vision for Generative AI in the 6G Radio Access Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.10478/) (2025)
- [Slicing for AI: An Online Learning Framework for Network Slicing Supporting AI Services](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.02412/) (2024)
- [AI-Native Open RAN for Non-Terrestrial Networks: An Overview](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.11935/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The open radio access network (RAN) aims to bring openness and intelligence to the traditional closed and proprietary RAN technology and offer flexibility, performance improvement, and cost-efficiency in the RAN deployment and operation. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the open RAN development. We briefly summarized the RAN evolution history and the state-of-the-art technologies applied in open RAN. The open RAN-related projects, activities, and standardization is then discussed. We then summarize the challenges and future research directions required to support the open RAN. Finally, we discuss some solutions to tackle these issues from the open source's perspective.