Open-Source Enabled Beyond 5G Private Mobile Networks: From Concept to Prototype

To enable emerging applications of fifth generation (5G) systems for vertical scenarios like mobile broadband and Internet of things (IoT) for vehicles and maritime sectors, a new trend towards softwarization and establishment of private networks is gaining momentum. Different from earlier generations of mobile systems where network functions are traditionally operated based on dedicated hardware, 5G infrastructures can be virtualized and services can be provided based on software, common hardware and servers. In this paper, we present an open-source based prototype private network which has been implemented in the framework of an EEA research project SOLID-B5G. The prototype network is a 5G non-standalone (NSA) network with a fourth generation (4G) evolved packet core (EPC) connecting both evolved NodeB (eNB) and next generation NodeB (gNB) to commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) user equipment (UE). The prototype is implemented based on two popular open-source software platforms, namely OAI RAN and srsRAN. Based on our implementations, extensive experiments have been conducted to assess the performance of the prototype network in terms of downlink/uplink throughput and latency between different parts of the system.