MORPH: Multi-Environment Orchestrated Reinforcement Learning for PRB Handling in O-RAN

TL;DR

MORPH introduces a multi-environment RL pipeline for spectrum allocation in O-RAN, combining real and simulated throughput data to improve robustness and SLA compliance in 5G networks.

Contribution

It fuses real and synthetic throughput signals from multiple sources to enhance RL training for spectrum management in O-RAN.

Findings

MORPH outperforms single-source RL agents in slice-wise performance.

It improves SLA compliance in heterogeneous slicing scenarios.

The approach provides a practical foundation for PRB-level spectrum sharing.

Abstract

Reinforcement-learning (RL) solutions for dynamic spectrum access and radio resource management in Open Radio Access Networks (O-RAN) depend critically on the fidelity of the throughput signal used for training. Analytical or physical-layer (PHY)-only simulators scale well but often miss protocol-stack effects such as signaling overhead and retransmissions, whereas exhaustive throughput profiling on a standards-compliant 5G stack is slow and can be unstable under software execution constraints. This paper presents MORPH, a measurement-grounded multi-environment RL pipeline {for slice-aware PRB-level spectrum allocation (spectrum sharing and slice isolation within a single gNB)} built on OpenAirInterface (OAI) 5G-NR RF-simulator mode. MORPH leverages three complementary throughput sources: (i) application-layer throughput measured via \texttt{iPerf} on the OAI stack under controlled AWGN pathloss settings, (ii) empirical MCS-selection distributions conditioned on path loss, enabling a distribution-aware theoretical throughput estimator that reflects standards-compliant link adaptation, and (iii) scalable throughput estimates from a 3GPP-parameterized PHY-fidelity OFDM simulator. Using these components, we train and compare agents that differ only in the origin of their throughput feedback: an OAI-grounded practical agent, a simulator-driven agent, and MORPH, which fuses real and synthetic throughput signals for policy optimization. Evaluation on the OAI execution harness across heterogeneous slicing scenarios shows that MORPH yields more robust slice-wise performance and improved SLA compliance than single-source training, providing a practical foundation for PRB-level spectrum sharing and slice isolation within a single-cell stack and a stepping stone toward multi-cell spectrum coordination and interference management.