Vehicular communications at high frequencies are envisioned to be a breakthrough application for the 6G cellular systems. Traditional Radio Access Networks (RANs) lack the flexibility to enable sophisticated control mechanisms that are demanded by the strict performance requirements of the dynamic vehicular environment. In contrast, the features of Open RAN (O-RAN) can be exploited to support advanced use cases. Indeed, the emerging paradigm of O-RAN represents an ideal framework for the orchestration of vehicular communication. Although the high potential stemming from their integration can be easily seen and recognized, the effective combination of the two ecosystems is an open issue. This article pioneers the integration of the two strategies for seamlessly incorporating vehicle-to-everything (V2X) control within O-RAN's ecosystem. We propose and discuss an enabling architecture that tightly integrates V2X and O-RAN. In the proposed solution, an O-RAN-based control plane operates at low frequencies to achieve reliable and efficient connectivity among autonomous vehicles at higher frequencies. The technological feasibility of this integrated architecture is investigated. A detailed case study is presented and analyzed to demonstrate the design of an xApp to showcase a practical example of O-RAN solution for a specific V2X scenario.

翻译：高频段下的车联网通信被认为是6G蜂窝系统的突破性应用。传统无线接入网络（RAN）缺乏灵活性，难以实现动态车辆环境严格性能要求所需的复杂控制机制。相反，开放无线接入网络（O-RAN）的特性可被用于支持高级应用场景。事实上，新兴的O-RAN范式为车联网通信编排提供了理想框架。尽管两者融合的巨大潜力显而易见，但两大生态系统的有效结合仍是一个开放性问题。本文首次提出将车联网（V2X）控制无缝集成至O-RAN生态系统的双策略融合方案。我们提出并讨论了一种紧密集成V2X与O-RAN的支持性架构。在提出的解决方案中，基于O-RAN的控制平面以低频运行，以实现高频段自动驾驶车辆间可靠高效的连接。本文对该集成架构的技术可行性进行了研究，并通过详细案例分析与呈现，展示了针对特定V2X场景设计的xApp，生动演示了O-RAN解决方案的实践范例。