Design and Analysis of an Open-Source SDN-based 5G Standalone Testbed

The fifth generation of mobile wireless communication represents a significant evolution of mobile networks due to its promises of Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), and Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC) to be applied to real-world applications. Even though there have been 5G Network deployments in some parts of the world that depend on 4G/LTE Core Networks, 5G is still a work in progress, with ongoing research and development to improve and develop this technology. 5G testbeds are essential for ongoing research to propose a solution, simulate, configure, test, and evaluate the impact of different network parameters on the system. Therefore, this paper presents a comprehensive approach to deploying a Standalone (SA) SDN-based 5G testbed for researchers to study and improve the performance of 5G Networks. Our testbed includes integrating several open-source projects to provide two testing scenarios where we assess the throughput and latency performance, Network Slicing configuration, and the feasibility of SDN capabilities. The testbed provides a helpful instrument and lessons learned for the research community to improve and contribute to the successful deployment of 5G Networks in the real world.