xDevSM: An Open-Source Framework for Portable, AI-Ready xApps Across Heterogeneous O-RAN Deployments

TL;DR

xDevSM is an open-source framework that simplifies the development of AI-enabled xApps for heterogeneous O-RAN deployments by unifying observability and control, validated on real-world testbeds.

Contribution

It introduces a unified, developer-friendly framework that enhances interoperability and control in O-RAN, facilitating practical AI-driven xApp development across diverse hardware and software stacks.

Findings

Demonstrated seamless interoperability across multiple RAN hardware and software stacks.

Validated the framework on real-world testbeds with COTS devices and SDRs.

Showed the framework's capability to support advanced network control scenarios.

Abstract

Openness and programmability in the O-RAN architecture enable closed-loop control of the Radio Access Network (RAN). Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven xApps, in the near-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), can learn from network data, anticipate future conditions, and dynamically adapt radio configurations. However, their development and adoption are hindered by the complexity of low-level RAN control and monitoring message models exposed over the O-RAN E2 interface, limited interoperability across heterogeneous RAN software stacks, and the lack of developer-friendly frameworks. In this paper, we introduce xDevSM, a framework that significantly lowers the barrier to xApp development by unifying observability and control in O-RAN deployment. By exposing a rich set of Key Performance Measurements (KPMs) and enabling fine-grained radio resource management controls, xDevSM provides the essential foundation for practical AI-driven xApps. We validate xDevSM on real-world testbeds, leveraging Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) devices together with heterogeneous RAN hardware, including Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP)-based Software-defined Radios (SDRs) and Foxconn radio units, and show its seamless interoperability across multiple open-source RAN software stacks. Furthermore, we discuss and evaluate the capabilities of our framework through three O-RAN-based scenarios of high interest: (i) KPM-based monitoring of network performance, (ii) slice-level Physical Resource Block (PRB) allocation control across multiple User Equipments (UEs) and slices, and (iii) mobility-aware handover control, showing that xDevSM can implement intelligent closed-loop applications, laying the groundwork for learning-based optimization in heterogeneous RAN deployments. xDevSM is open source and available as foundational tool for the research community.