SPARC: Spatio-Temporal Adaptive Resource Control for Multi-site Spectrum Management in NextG Cellular Networks

This work presents SPARC (Spatio-Temporal Adaptive Resource Control), a novel approach for multi-site spectrum management in NextG cellular networks. SPARC addresses the challenge of limited licensed spectrum in dynamic environments. We leverage the O-RAN architecture to develop a multi-timescale RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) framework, featuring an xApp for near-real-time interference detection and localization, and a xApp for real-time intelligent resource allocation. By utilizing base stations as spectrum sensors, SPARC enables efficient and fine-grained dynamic resource allocation across multiple sites, enhancing signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by up to 7dB, spectral efficiency by up to 15%, and overall system throughput by up to 20%. Comprehensive evaluations, including emulations and over-the-air experiments, demonstrate the significant performance gains achieved through SPARC, showcasing it as a promising solution for optimizing resource efficiency and network performance in NextG cellular networks.