Exploiting O-RAN as an Effective Solution for Malicious User Localization

Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) provides a highly flexible and programmable architecture that enhances network security in dynamic mobile environments. O-RAN supports the deployment of ad hoc intelligent applications which adapt to dynamic network conditions, ensuring robust and real-time responses to security challenges. This flexibility enables advanced network monitoring and response mechanisms, making O-RAN an ideal framework for addressing security threats, such as unauthorized access and physical-layer attacks. By continuously analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs) across the network, O-RAN can maintain a comprehensive view of network conditions and dynamically adjust to ensure system integrity. In this work, we evaluate the potential of O-RAN for enhancing network security by integrating techniques for the detection and mitigation of security threats. Through simulations of O-RAN network, we assess how this architecture can support advanced security tasks, demonstrating its effectiveness in identifying and responding to malicious UEs. This evaluation provides strong evidence of the suitability of O-RAN for security tasks, planning to deploy specific near-Real-Time Applications (xApp) and non-Real-Time Applications (rApp) to implement network security tasks. This approach will allow the integration of these intelligent applications to create a more adaptive and scalable security solution.