Hello Experts.
Nice comparison between RIC and SON, from Mavenir.
| Aspects | SON | RIC |
|---|---|---|
| Optimization | Optimizes Management-plane operations of network elements and cell-level parameters | Additionally, optimizes RRM for control-plane and user-plane procedures and user/bearer/session/flow-level parameters on a per-UE basis across RAN protocol stack. |
| Intelligence | Cell-level analytics and performance data correlation across the RAN stack | Additionally, UE-level cross-layer analytics and state/data correlation across the RAN protocol stack |
| Interfaces | Proprietary interfaces with network elements and apps | O-RAN standardized open interfaces with network elements and apps achieving multi-vendor inter-operability |
| Granularity | Coarse-grained and non-real-time | Additionally, fine-grained and near real-time (10 ms to 1 sec) using low-latency control loops |
| Policies | Pre-built policies/objectives to operate on network data. | Adaptive training and update of policies/objectives on-the-fly while operating on network data. |
| Performance monitoring | No standard procedures for continuous performance monitoring | Standard procedures for Continuous performance monitoring and ML/AI life cycle management |
Here is the source (Where you can find more help about Traffic Steering, Near-RT RIC Architecture and E2 Interface and Use-Case Realization): https://www.mavenir.com/blog/building-the-worlds-first-o-ran-compliant-ai-powered-closed-loop-near-rt-ric/
Fig: O-RAN architecture with the RIC components and the interfaces