SE6: Single-Node 5G SA

This page is under active development.

1) Experiment Overview

Experiment Definition: The user logs into one E-VM on two fixed (virtual) AERPAW Nodes (Machine #1-2) and one E-VM on the portable (virtual), or fixed, AERPAW Node (Machine #3). At the end of the experiment, the user can view logs and test results.

Experiment Scenarios Applicable: S1, S2, S3, S4, S7. These scenarios correspond to various different user experimentation scenarios in AERPAW. 

Experiment Goals: The main goal of this experiment is to provide a complete end-to-end 5G SA network, using srsUE with srsENB and open5GS. The different modes offered in this experiment are EMULATION, TESTBED and applicable tests for these modes are PING, IPERF 

Mode Descriptions:

EMULATION

Base Station to Single UE Link (1 EPC + 1 BS PC + 1 UE PC)

Description: Two or more radio modules (on each side) send IQ samples to the channel emulator, so the channel emulator should be stated such that it can forward (selectively) IQ samples.

TESTBED 

Base Station to Single UE Link (1 EPC + 1 BS PC + 1 UE PC)

Description: This mode sets up an EPC, eNB, and a UE. A connection will be established. If the default configuration settings are used, the experiment runs using settings for FDD in band n7, and the radios are offset to operate within the 3.3 - 3.55 GHz spectrum at 10 MHz bandwidth (50 resource blocks). 

Test Descriptions:

PING

Description: Ping (latency is the technically more correct term) means the time it takes for a small data set to be transmitted from your device to a server on the Internet and back to your device again. The ping time is measured in milliseconds (ms)

IPERF

Description: Iperf has client and server functionality, and can create data streams to measure the throughput between the two ends in one or both directions.

Software version

Machine #1 (for B205mini / B210 Container): 

• Ubuntu version 18.04

• srsLTE version 22.10

• uhd 4.2.0.1

Machine #2 (for B205mini / B210 container): 

• Ubuntu version 18.04

• srsLTE version 22.10

• uhd 4.2.0.1

Most Common Configuration Parameters:

• ARFCN (center frequency): this sets the center frequency of the downlink transmission for 3GPP supported bands. The uplink center frequency is automatically set, and it depends on whether the band is TDD (same uplink and downlink frequency) or FDD (uplink and downlink offset by the channel spacing)

• USRP Tx Gain (sets the gain of variable PA in the USRP in the range of 0 to 89 for B series, 0 to 30 for X310): default is 0 dBFS which has been determined for the external Tx RF front end.

• USRP Rx Gain (sets the gain of variable PA in the USRP in the range of 0 to 76 for B series, 0 to 30 for X310): default is 0 dBFS which has been determined for the external Rx RF front end and Tx/Rx isolation.

2) Modifying the Experiment Configuration Parameters:

Open5GS Core Network configuration:

The database can be modified using the Open5GS Database Configuration Tool. To add a user with default values

$ /opt/open5gs/build/misc/db/open5gs-dbctl add [imsi] [key] [opc]

To add a user with a specified IP address

$ /opt/open5gs/build/misc/db/open5gs-dbctl add [imsi] [ip] [key] [opc]

To remove a user

$ /opt/open5gs/build/misc/db/open5gs-dbctl remove [imsi]

Base Station: 

The shell script /root/Profiles/ProfileScripts/Samples/startSRSRAN-5G-SISO-GNB.sh calls a script /root/Profiles/ProfileScripts/Radio/Helpers/startGNB.sh which can be edited by the experimenter to modify the parameters of the base station.

The value of "mme_addr" in all base stations should be set to the value of IP address used to ssh into the core network container. 

UE: 

The shell script /root/Profiles/ProfileScripts/Samples/startSRSRAN-5G-SISO-UE.sh calls the script /root/Profiles/ProfileScripts/Radio/Helpers/start5GUE.sh which can be edited by the experimenter to modify the parameters of the UE.

3) Performing the Experiment:

3.A) Choosing the Experiment Mode

Machine #1: 

We assume the core network is a fixed node. Login to the E-VM corresponding to the fixed node. Navigate to the folder containing all the Radio scripts

$ cd /root/Profiles/ProfileScripts/Radio

Copy the open5GS script as startRadio.sh

$ cp Samples/startOpen5GS.sh startRadio.sh 

Use an editor to uncomment the line  /Radio/startRadio.sh in /root/startexperiment.sh and run the following command:

$ /root/startexperiment.sh

Machine #2: 

5G SA Base Station (gNodeB or gNB) configuration

We assume the transmitter is a fixed node. Login to the E-VM corresponding to the fixed node. Navigate to the folder containing all the Radio scripts 

$ cd /root/Profiles/ProfileScripts/Radio

Copy the srsRAN 5G SISO script as startRadio.sh

$ cp Samples/startSRSRAN-5G-SISO-GNB.sh startRadio.sh 

Use an editor to uncomment the line  /Radio/startRadio.sh in /root/startexperiment.sh and run the following command:

$ /root/startexperiment.sh

Machine #3: 

5G SA UE configuration: 

The shell script /root/Profiles/ProfileScripts/Samples/startSRSRAN-5G-SISO-UE.sh calls the script /root/Profiles/ProfileScripts/Radio/Helpers/startUE.sh which can be edited by the experimenter to modify the parameters of the UE.

We assume the UE is a portable node. Login to the E-VM corresponding to the fixed node. Navigate to the folder containing all the Radio scripts 

$ cd /root/Profiles/ProfileScripts/Radio

Copy the srsRAN 5G SISO script as startRadio.sh

$ cp Samples/startSRSRAN-5G-SISO-UE.sh startRadio.sh 

Use an editor to uncomment the line  /Radio/startRadio.sh in /root/startexperiment.sh and run the following command:

$ /root/startexperiment.sh

4) Results:

Results can be viewed by executing the following commands:

4.A) Ping Results:

The UE will search for a cell at the specific frequency. The experiment generates timestamped measurement log under the /root/Results folder. Once it finds a cell, it will initiate the attachment processes and once attached, the data sessions can be established. Example results pending.

4.B) IPERF Results:

The UE will search for a cell at the specific frequency. The experiment generates timestamped measurement log under the /root/Results folder. Once it finds a cell, it will initiate the attachment processes and once attached, the data sessions can be established. Pending.

4.C) Trace Results:

The outputted trace data for the eNodeB, shown in Figures 3 and 4, and EPC, shown in Figure 5, will be printed to the /root/Results folder.

The trace shows typical radio parameters, specific to the protocol. In this case, the protocol is LTE, and the following uplink and downlink specific parameters are provided by srsran:

• Radio Network Temporary Identity (RNTI) is related to the network ID.

• Channel quality indicator (CQI) is a value between 1 and 15 indicating the quality of the channel.

• Rank indicator (RI) relates to the rank used for multi-antenna configurations/MIMO.

• Modulation and coding scheme (MCS) refers to adaptive modulation and coding that LTE supports to adjust the bitloading to the given channel conditions.

• OK/NOK are positive and negative acknowledgements.

• BLER (%) is the percentage of dropped blocks. It should be below 10% for the system to function according to the specifications.

• PUSCH and PUCCH refers to the SNR on the uplink shared channel and uplink control channel.

• PHR

• The bitrate (brate) is the throughput in bits per second (k for kilo, M for Mega).