Cost-Aware Conflict Triage for xApp Control Conflicts in Open RAN

Abstract

Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) enables multi-vendor deployments where concurrent RAN control applications (xApps) independently optimise mobility, load, coverage, and energy within the Near Real Time RAN Intelligent Controller (Near-RT RIC). When xApps act on overlapping control parameters, their isolated loops produce conflicting decisions that degrade the network Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Existing conflict-evaluation methods estimate severity but do not answer whether the intervention is cost-justified. This paper proposes a cost-aware conflict triage framework that pairs ECDF-based severity evaluation with an event-level decision layer. The framework groups detected conflict records into episodes, extracts nine features, estimates per-mechanism costs and benefits, and assigns one of three actions: tolerate, defer, or mitigate. Evaluated in a simulator-driven Open RAN setting over 30 Monte Carlo runs with four concurrent xApps, the framework defers 66.8 %, mitigates 19.8 %, and tolerates 13.4 % of detected episodes, achieving a mean net utility of 0.132 per intervention, 3.9x higher than an always-mitigate baseline, by avoiding low- value interventions through cost-aware selectivity.