O2 Interface (O-RAN SMO to O-Cloud Interface)

Also known as: O2, O2-IMS, O2-DMS

The O2 interface is the O-RAN interface between the SMO and the O-Cloud infrastructure that hosts O-RAN Cloud Network Functions. It has two logical services: O2-IMS for infrastructure management (inventory, monitoring, lifecycle of compute/storage/network) and O2-DMS for deployment management (workload lifecycle of O-CU/O-DU/Near-RT RIC/xApp). O2 defines the trust boundary between the RAN operator and its cloud infrastructure.

Categories: Radio Access NetworkCloud and Virtualization

O2 Interface in context

The radio access network is where mobile devices attach to the operator's infrastructure. Attacks in this layer include IMSI catching, rogue base stations and downgrade attacks; defenses rest on mutual authentication, integrity-protected signaling and Open RAN supply-chain hygiene.

Moving network functions off dedicated hardware into NFV, Kubernetes and Open RAN reshapes the threat model. Isolation now depends on hypervisor, container and service-mesh controls plus image and Helm-chart supply-chain security.

To place O2 Interface in the wider telecom-security picture, review O-Cloud, Fronthaul, SMO, IGW, O-RAN Alliance and O-RAN Interfaces (A1, E2, O1, O2): each entry cross-references back to this page so you can walk the topic in either direction.

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