DEMO: FPGA-accelerated 5G Low-PHY Functions and An Integration with OpenAirInterface

As 5G networks evolve to meet the growing demands for high data rates, low latency, and superior quality of service, hardware acceleration becomes essential for managing computationally intensive tasks. This paper demonstrates an implementation of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols (both downlink and uplink transmission) using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), offloading the execution of these critical Low-Physical Layer (Low-PHY) functions away from the general-purpose CPU approach found in the open-source mobile software platform OpenAirInterface (OAI). The full integration of FPGA-generated OFDM symbols with an Open Computing Language (OpenCL) framework and the OAI protocol stack yields significant performance improvements, including a a 90% processing time reduction compared to the traditional CPU-based implementation. This demonstration highlights the effectiveness of FPGA acceleration in enhancing the efficiency of 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) functions implemented by open-source efforts, thus offering a path forward to implementing additional Low-PHY functions on accelerated hardware.