Design and Implementation of Cloud-Native Open RAN Testbed
Daesik Kim, Eunsok Lee, Sangheon Pack · 2024
5G aims to support various services, each with its own requirements such as low latency, massive connectivity, and high data rates. These services require a highly flexible and scalable network architecture. To meet these requirements, the open radio access network (O-RAN) is presented which enables the flexible deployment of virtualized network functions (VNFs) through open interfaces, reducing the hardware dependencies of traditional radio access network (RAN) architecture. These features have led to much research in the O-RAN environment. However, many studies rely on small-scale simulations using open-source projects, which are unable to reflect realistic network conditions. In this paper, we introduce the cloud-native 0-RAN testbed using OpenAirInterface (OAI) and kubernetes (K8s), designed to simulate flexible deployment and dynamic management. Our testbed demonstrates how it effectively handles real-time network demands in the O-RAN environment.