In-Lab Performance Analysis of a 5G Non-Terrestrial Network using OpenAirInterface
Florian Völk, Robert T. Schwarz, Andreas Knopp · 2023
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standardization effort fosters the integration of non-terrestrial networks (NTN) by defining the specification for 5G and 6G systems. However, commercial 5G implementations are expensive. Thus, procuring commercial software implementations for test and development purposes constitute economic impediments for universities and nonprofit research institutions. Network testbeds based on Open-Source software implementations are an attractive alternative to test new standard proposals in a controlled environment. This article evaluates an OpenAirInterface (OAI) implementation for direct satellite access with a 5G New Radio (NR) waveform. The OAI User Equipment (UE) and Next Generation Node B (gNB) are connected through a satellite channel emulator to determine the performance of several IP-based protocols over geostationary transparent payloads. The results show that the current implementation is reliable and achieves 3.5 Mbit/s in up- and downlink with a typical geostationary latency of around 600 ms. The tests confirm that the latest software implementation of the demonstrator can be used to investigate typical broadband universal services applications. They also show that NTN testbeds are an essential tool for the research and development of 3GPP-based network technologies.