Flexible software-defined radio access network architecture and methods for use therewith

A radio access network (RAN) system comprises:

• a plurality of capsules that operate in parallel to cooperatively perform RAN stack operations, each capsule utilizing a processor and a memory configured to perform a corresponding component of the RAN stack operations, wherein the RAN stack operations result in:
• communicating backhaul communications with a core communication network;
• communicating fronthaul communications with a plurality of radio units configured to engage in wireless communications with a plurality of user equipment (UEs) via a radio channel of a radio network;
• converting, in accordance with a communication standard, received fronthaul communications from the plurality of radio units into backhaul communications transmitted to the core communications network;
• and
• converting, in accordance with the communication standard, received backhaul communications from the core communications network into fronthaul communications transmitted to the plurality of radio units;
• wherein a first subset of capsules is implemented by a first module under control of a first liquidity controller, wherein a second subset of capsules is implemented by a second module under control of a second liquidity controller, wherein the first subset of capsules are mutually exclusive of the second subset of capsules, and wherein multiplexers in the first module and the second module support logical links between two or more of the first subset of capsules and two or more of the second subset of capsules.