Systems and Methods for Energy and Fronthaul Bandwidth Efficient Uplink Performance Improvements for O-RAN-based Radio Access Networks

A system for optimizing uplink performance of Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) in at least one of an energy-efficient and fronthaul-bandwidth-efficient manner, said O-RAN implementing O-RAN split option 7-2x-based uplink (UL) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) operation, said system comprising:

• a radio unit (RU) of the O-RAN configured to selectively obtain at least one of non-port reduced DMRS symbols and non-port reduced DMRS measurements, wherein the non-port reduced DMRS symbols are DMRS symbols from multiple antenna streams before digital beamforming operation, and the non-port reduced DMRS measurements are measurements derived from the non-port reduced DMRS symbols;
• and
• a distributed unit (DU) of the O-RAN configured to implement the O-RAN 7-2x-based UL MIMO operation in conjunction with the RU;
• wherein at least one of the RU and the DU is configured to selectively utilize at least one of the non-port reduced DMRS symbols and the non-port reduced DMRS measurements to mitigate performance degradation of the O-RAN 7-2x-based UL MIMO in conditions leading to performance degradation.