5G Testbed as a Service (5GTaaS): An Open Source Implementation for Networks of the Future
Rekha Reddy, Aman Kumar Singh, Christoph Lipps, Hans Dieter Schotten · 2023
5G communication services have promised to pro-vide improved networks with a focus on enhanced Mobile broad-Band (eMBB), Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency communication (URLLC), and massive Machine Type Communication (MMTC). There is always a gap in functional real-time services between research-oriented solutions compared to the main busi-ness services. Thus, there is a need to provide a common platform to enable business and research user communities to have a similar understanding of the complex service deployment of 5G networks. Therefore, to mitigate the gap, this work proposes a prototype of 5G Testbed as a Service (5GTaaS), a one-click deployment process to build and configure a 5G core network. Currently, the solution is deployed as a service on a public cloud provider Amazon Web Service (AWS). The proposed solution uses Free5GC as the core network. The testbed enables users to build ready-to-use infrastructure within a span of 4 minutes, thus reducing human errors by eliminating manual configuration steps. The deployed services are evaluated based on availability and feature testing with the simulated end-user procedure.