ESN-DAGMM: A Lightweight Framework for Unsupervised Time-Series Data Monitoring in 5G O-RAN Networks

Abstract: Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) is an important 5G network architecture enabling flexible communication with adaptive strategies for different verticals. However, testing for O-RAN deployments involve massive volumes of time-series data (e.g., key performance indicators), creating critical challenges for scalable, unsupervised monitoring without labels or high computational overhead. To address this, we present ESN-DAGMM, a lightweight adaptation of the Deep Autoencoding Gaussian Mixture Model (DAGMM) framework for time series analysis. Our model utilizes an Echo State Network (ESN) to efficiently model temporal dependencies, proving effective in O-RAN networks where training samples are highly limited. Combined with DAGMM's integratation of dimensionality reduction and density estimation, we present a scalable framework for unsupervised monitoring of high volume network telemetry. When trained on only 10% of an O-RAN video-streaming dataset, ESN-DAGMM achieved on average 269.59% higher quality clustering than baselines under identical conditions, all while maintaining competitive reconstruction error. By extending DAGMM to capture temporal dynamics, ESN-DAGMM offers a practical solution for time-series analysis using very limited training samples, outperforming baselines and enabling operator's control over the clustering-reconstruction trade-off.