Enabling Real-Time Programmability for RAN Functions: A Wasm-Based Approach for Robust and High-Performance dApps

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Esper, João Paulo, Freitas, Yure, Souza, Pedro, Silvestre, Bruno, Santos, Joao F., Huff, Alexandre, Both, Cristiano, Cardoso, Kleber
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Esper, João Paulo
Freitas, Yure
Souza, Pedro
Silvestre, Bruno
Santos, Joao F.
Huff, Alexandre
Both, Cristiano
Cardoso, Kleber
author_facet Esper, João Paulo
Freitas, Yure
Souza, Pedro
Silvestre, Bruno
Santos, Joao F.
Huff, Alexandre
Both, Cristiano
Cardoso, Kleber
contents While the Open Radio Access Network Alliance (O-RAN) architecture enables third-party applications to optimize radio access networks at multiple timescales, real-time distributed applications (dApps) that demand low latency, high performance, and strong isolation remain underexplored. Existing approaches propose colocating a new RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) at the edge, or deploying dApps in bare metal along with RAN functions. While the former approach increases network complexity and requires additional edge computing resources, the latter raises serious security concerns due to the lack of native mechanisms to isolate dApps and RAN functions. Meanwhile, WebAssembly (Wasm) has emerged as a lightweight, fast technology for robust execution of external, untrusted code. In this work, we propose a new approach to executing dApps using Wasm to isolate applications in real-time in O-RAN. Results show that our lightweight and robust approach ensures predictable, deterministic performance, strong isolation, and low latency, enabling real-time control loops.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_17880
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Enabling Real-Time Programmability for RAN Functions: A Wasm-Based Approach for Robust and High-Performance dApps
Esper, João Paulo
Freitas, Yure
Souza, Pedro
Silvestre, Bruno
Santos, Joao F.
Huff, Alexandre
Both, Cristiano
Cardoso, Kleber
Networking and Internet Architecture
While the Open Radio Access Network Alliance (O-RAN) architecture enables third-party applications to optimize radio access networks at multiple timescales, real-time distributed applications (dApps) that demand low latency, high performance, and strong isolation remain underexplored. Existing approaches propose colocating a new RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) at the edge, or deploying dApps in bare metal along with RAN functions. While the former approach increases network complexity and requires additional edge computing resources, the latter raises serious security concerns due to the lack of native mechanisms to isolate dApps and RAN functions. Meanwhile, WebAssembly (Wasm) has emerged as a lightweight, fast technology for robust execution of external, untrusted code. In this work, we propose a new approach to executing dApps using Wasm to isolate applications in real-time in O-RAN. Results show that our lightweight and robust approach ensures predictable, deterministic performance, strong isolation, and low latency, enabling real-time control loops.
title Enabling Real-Time Programmability for RAN Functions: A Wasm-Based Approach for Robust and High-Performance dApps
topic Networking and Internet Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.17880