Emu5GNet: an Open-Source Emulator for 5G Software-Defined Networks

Network emulators are a key component for the implementation and evaluation of new applications. A network emulator designed for 5G networks should support the deployment of a complete 5G architecture (core and access network) as well as the deployment of edge data centers (edge computing) and the implementation of flexible SDN (Software Defined Networks)/NFV (Network Function Virtualization) architecture. To date, there is no environment enabling this combination of features. In this paper, we introduce a new network emulator named Emu5GNet, allowing the deployment of applications in complex 5G networks enabling both emulation of the network and data processing. Then, we present the architecture set up to achieve this objective and identify some of the applications that could be deployed in this environment: network performance, mobility management, etc. We also propose a quick evaluation to show how our emulator could potentially be used.