Implementation and Comparative Analysis of Open 5G Standalone Testbeds: A Systematic Approach

Abstract

Open-source software and commercial off-the-shelf hardware are finally paving their way into the 5G world, resulting in a proliferation of experimental 5G testbeds. Surprisingly, very few studies have been published on the comparative analysis of testbeds with different hardware and software elements.

This dissertation is a comprehensive study on the implementation of experimental 5G testbeds and the challenges associated with them. We first introduce a precise nomenclature to characterize a 5G-standalone single-cell testbed based on its constituent elements and main configuration parameters. We then build 36 distinct such testbeds and systematically analyze and compare their performance with an emphasis on element interoperability, as well as the number and type of User Equipment (UE), to address the following questions: 1) How is the performance (in terms of bit rate and latency) impacted by different elements? 2) How does the number of UEs affect these results? 3) What is the impact of the user(s)' location(s) on the performance? 4) What is the impact of the UE type on these results? 5) How far does each testbed provide coverage? 6) What is the impact of the available computational resources on the performance of each open-source software? Finally, to illustrate the practical applications of such open experimental testbeds, we present a case study focused on user scheduling. Historically, most research on user scheduling has been conducted using simulations, with a strong emphasis on downlink scheduling. In contrast, our study is fully experimental, and targets enhancements to the uplink scheduler within the open-source Radio Access Network platform, srsRAN. We aim to move beyond simulation-based evaluations and explore how improvements in the uplink scheduler translate to real-world performance, specifically by measuring their impact on the user experience in a live experimental testbed.