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Open source 5G core network

github.com

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Re: Open source 5G core network

#41

Post by sdjkfgsdjkfghjh »

Jhsto wrote: post #40
sdjkfgsdjkfghjh wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That site does not load here. I get a CSP error. sigh, nokia. https://www.nokia.com/networks/solutions/community-hosted-ne... is this the same? there is zero information about nokia kuha! interesting if this can hold more 24/7 broadband clients than wifimax et al.

It seems to be the same thing. The use-case displayed on Nokia's website matches to one of the blog-posts available on kuha.io

thanks, it's loading here now.

It seems that this is aimed exclusively at operators that already have the infrastructure to issue SIM cards et al, and communities that are barred from deploying their own infrastructure but willing to pay for it. A weird use case but clearly aimed at US and AU markets I'd guess.

You need a community that will want to front the cost of laying fiber, and then instead of distributing or starting a small ISP/coop will give that new termination to a telecom giant who will plug this device into their existing billing network to provision their new subscribers with access under the existing plans costs.

Re: Open source 5G core network

#42

Post by non-entity »

14k12j41j211 wrote: post #19
non-entity wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any recommended resources for learning about mobile communications technologies that aren't overpriced engineering certificates or surface level marketing material for / from telcoms?

https://www.sharetechnote.com/

Oh nice, this is really cool. It even has some 802.11 stuff which I was having a hard time finding as well (apparently IEEE used to make the specs available after a certain time, but that appears to have been killed)

Re: Open source 5G core network

#43

Post by non-entity »

Jhsto wrote: post #17
non-entity wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any recommended resources for learning about mobile communications technologies that aren't overpriced engineering certificates or surface level marketing material for / from telcoms?

Coming from a software background, I think NextEPC and its new variant called Open5GS have the most down-to-earth documentation and code to start from: https://open5gs.org/open5gs/docs/ . The authors have many good papers that are easy to follow. Osmocom also has good resources https://osmocom.org/projects/cellular-infrastructure/wiki Most of the learning curve comes from the lingo. Especially now that 5G introduces…

> the terms used by the cellular and software industries clash and may be confusing at times.

lol, I've found a lot of terminology around digital communications seem to be confusing. Terms meaning two or three different things depending on context, etc.

Re: Open source 5G core network

#44

Post by martinald »

foobiekr wrote: post #27
g_p wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing hugely different to "late stage 4G" (Release 14). The main difference with 5G (that was available in Rel14 but not widely used by anyone) is control and user plane separation, which means some network traffic can leave the user plane at the base station, and go elsewhere, rather than be routed all the way back to the core network. That enables edge computing by allowing traffic for the edge computing node to…

exactly, control-userplane separation is the primary differentiator for "5g." the whole point is to eliminate backhaul and allow closer CDNs and caches..

Is it? So Netflix is going to install a massive rack of storage in every cell tower, with expensive power and cooling and risk of vandalism and theft? Even if you cached the enterity of netflix, it's still only 10% of Internet traffic.

Backhaul is becoming less and less of a problem as more and more sites get fibre backhaul. Point to point links can easily do 10gig/sec now even if they don't have fibre (to another tower with fibre). That is almost certainly as much if not more than the total capacity of most cell towers even with a stupendous amount of spectrum allocated.

Re: Open source 5G core network

#45

Post by matt9j »

g_p wrote: post #16
Jhsto wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LTE (and 5G on 3.6Ghz, I guess) signal can cover many kilometers. The protocols are built to be more reliable (a phone keeps a tab of access points to which it can quickly hop if access to one base station is lost) and the licensing ensures that there cannot be spectrum suffocation at any time, which is quite common in bigger cities with WiFi.

Seamless handovers are definitely key to mobile networks, and much of the 3GPP technology is designed around this. Spectrum licensing is more about ensuring exclusive use of spectrum - in a busy built up area (less common during current times hopefully), you'll still suffer from "spectrum suffocation" like with WiFi - if you ever experienced data stalling where your phone indicated a signal, but weren't getting any a…

In addition to just the total amount of spectrum, coordinated scheduling between towers in the cellular standards helps with cooperative management of interference. Some of this is just now happening in 802.11ax, but without the high-speed non-microwave connections that celltowers in dense areas enjoy to coordinate over. 5G-NR also allows coordinated multipoint transmission, which you can think of kind of like MIMO but from multiple towers instead of just multiple antennas on the same tower. I don't know if this would ever be feasible in consumer WiFi equipment due to the challenges of synchronizing clocks across the different APs.

Re: Open source 5G core network

#46

Post by matt9j »

Jhsto wrote: post #3

For those interested, this project seems to be a rewrite of https://nextepc.org/ into Go. Alternative projects include https://github.com/facebookincubator/magma and https://github.com/openairinterface . You can start your own telenetwork with these projects (but of course doing such would be highly illegal without a spectrum license), but first, you need a gNB or eNodeB which is lingo for a base station. It is possi…

Magma at its initiation extended a hard fork of OAI. The projects have since diverged quite a bit, but some of the core bits are still shared. NextEPC was renamed to open5gs a while back, and a lot of the open source telecom work seems to be happening there https://github.com/open5gs/open5gs . The project was recently reorganized by its founder though, and currently requires a CLA to contribute upstream.

Re: Open source 5G core network

#47

Post by jcrawfordor »

newhouseb wrote: post #4
Jhsto wrote: post #3

For those interested, this project seems to be a rewrite of https://nextepc.org/ into Go. Alternative projects include https://github.com/facebookincubator/magma and https://github.com/openairinterface . You can start your own telenetwork with these projects (but of course doing such would be highly illegal without a spectrum license), but first, you need a gNB or eNodeB which is lingo for a base station. It is possi…

I'm not an expert, but there are variants of LTE and 5G (LTE-U and 5G NR-U) that support operating in the unlicensed 5Ghz band. That said, I'm not sure a commercial handset would connect to anything in that range. You could probably get an SDR-based UE (UE is telecom-speak for "thing that connects to a cell network") to work.

LTE-U is commercially available and currently in use on a limited scale for wireless internet service. The main (and almost only) manufacturer of base stations and clients is a company called Baicells.

While LTE-U does have some advantages over WiFi for WISP use (e.g. better handling of a large number of clients per AP), the higher cost (around ~$9k for an LTE-U eNodeB compared to as low as $500 for a WISP-grade 5GHz WiFi AP) and scarcity of vendors means that it's not very commonly used. We'll see if that changes over time, but WiFi has a huge amount of inertia in that space so it seems difficult for LTE-U to catch up considering that the power levels are limited to such an extent that it doesn't have a huge range advantage over WiFi with good antennas.

In fact, just looking at Baicells it seems that they offer fewer models for LTE-U than they used to, so they may be finding that sales aren't enough to keep up the product line.

Re: Open source 5G core network

#48

Post by ksec »

superkuh wrote: post #23
ksec wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because 5G, or even 4G LTE is still technically superior to even latest WiFi 802.11ax.

Only slightly. Most of the difference is telcos paying the $$$ to get their antennas up high with line of sight.

Well Not really. 5G / 4G are far better in noisy, complex multi user environment. You could get higher bandwidth from 4G / 5G then you could in best case WiFi scenario ( Line of Sight ) with equal spectrum.

802.11ax was basically moving some of the LTE tools over to WiFi ( OFDMA ) and completely failed. And pushing back some intended features to 802.11be.

Re: Open source 5G core network

#49

Post by foobiekr »

martinald wrote: post #44
foobiekr wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

exactly, control-userplane separation is the primary differentiator for "5g." the whole point is to eliminate backhaul and allow closer CDNs and caches..

Is it? So Netflix is going to install a massive rack of storage in every cell tower, with expensive power and cooling and risk of vandalism and theft? Even if you cached the enterity of netflix, it's still only 10% of Internet traffic. Backhaul is becoming less and less of a problem as more and more sites get fibre backhaul. Point to point links can easily do 10gig/sec now even if they don't have fibre (to another to…

The userplane doesn't run on the cell tower. The mobile network backhaul is multiple stages, and the tower is just the first hop.

The problem with backhaul isn't the availability of fiber, it's the _concentration of bandwidth_.

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