User equipment offloading during cuup auto scale down

A method comprising:

• receiving, at a Centralized Unit Control Plane (CU-CP) associated with at least one gNodeB (gNB) from a plurality of gNodeBs (gNBs), a RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) control request;
• and
• initiating, upon receiving the RIC control request, a change of Centralized Unit User Plane (CU-UP) procedure for a set of User Equipments (UEs) associated with the at least one gNB by utilizing at least one of an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) and a User Plane Function (UPF) via performing one or more procedures,
• wherein the RIC control request comprises an instruction to transfer context information associated with the set of UEs from a source gNB-CU-UP to a target gNB-CU-UP,
• wherein the one or more procedures comprise at least one of a bearer context setup procedure, an F1 UE context management procedure, a bearer context modification procedure with the source gNB-CU-UP, a bearer context modification procedure with the target gNB-CU-UP, a context transformation, a path update procedure, and a bearer context release procedure.

An apparatus, the apparatus is configured to:

• receive, at an Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), a plurality of RIC indication messages from a plurality of gNodeBs (gNBs), wherein each of the plurality of RIC indication messages comprises one or more network parameters;
• determine, based on the one or more network parameters, whether a plurality network conditions satisfy one or more predefined criteria,
• wherein the plurality network conditions comprising an identification of a scale-in, an expiration of a session drain timer, and an absence of any scale-out;
• and
• transmit, in response to the plurality network conditions satisfy one or more predefined criteria, an RIC control request to initiate a change of Centralized Unit User Plane (CU-UP) procedure for a set of User Equipments (UEs) associated with at least one gNB among the plurality of gNBs.