ProtO-RU is a software implementation of an O-RAN split 7.2-compatible Radio Unit based on OCUDU (release 26.04). It extends the OCUDU Open Fronthaul library and RU emulator with an SDR-backed O-RU mode.
ProtO-RU supports UHD-compatible radios such as the USRP B210. ZMQ operation is not supported in this release.
ProtO-RU is intended for research and development where a customizable software O-RU is preferable to a fixed-function commercial radio. It can run on x86 and ARM hosts supported by OCUDU and UHD.
- Technical report: arXiv
- ACM Open AI-RAN 2025 invited demo: poster, video
- Summer 2026 OAI Workshop demo: video
Note: For earlier releases of ProtO-RU, check out the
legacybranch.
- Overview and setup
- Configuration and integration
- Support
Install the required dependencies by following the OCUDU installation guide. Then build ProtO-RU in the same way as OCUDU:
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../
make -j $(nproc)The resulting executable is build/apps/examples/ofh/ru_emulator.
See the Docker quickstart for container-based build and run instructions.
ProtO-RU requires synchronized DU and RU host clocks and a real-time kernel on the RU host for sustained operation. Review the hardware requirements and time synchronization guide before starting it.
Adapt one of the paired example configurations, then run:
sudo ./build/apps/examples/ofh/ru_emulator -c /absolute/path/to/protoru.ymlProtO-RU needs a larger Open Fronthaul delay profile than the stock OCUDU O-DU accepts. Apply the range adjustment described in the integration notes before using the included OCUDU O-DU samples.
@techreport{zhou2025protoru,
title={ProtO-RU: An O-RAN Split-7.2 Radio Unit using SDRs},
author={Zhiyu Zhou and Xin Zhe Khooi and Satis Kumar Permal and Mun Choon Chan},
year={2025},
eprint={2512.02398},
archivePrefix={arXiv},
primaryClass={cs.NI},
url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.02398},
}For questions and feedback, use one of these channels:
- Issue tracker
- Discussion board
- Discord server
- Email:
khooixz [at] comp [dot] nus [dot] edu [dot] sg
OCUDU is a permissively-licensed, open-source 5G (and beyond) CU/DU project designed for commercial deployment and broad industry adoption, as well as advanced research and development. OCUDU is a complete radio access network (RAN) solution compliant with 3GPP and O-RAN Alliance specifications and includes the full L1/2/3 stack with minimal external dependencies. OCUDU is governed under the Linux Foundation.
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