5G Broadcast Transmitter for QRD and CRD

Introduction

The 5G Broadcast Transmitter for QRD and CRD is an extension of and MBMS-enabled eNodeB tailored to operate as a 5G Broadcast transmitter compatible with Qualcomm Reference Design (QRD) and QRC devices.

Additional information can be found at: https://5g-mag.github.io/Getting-Started/pages/lte-based-5g-broadcast/

About the implementation

This implementation is based on the srsRAN_4G Project. The eNodeB has been modified in order not to require uplink connectivity from UEs in order to MBMS data.

Install dependencies

On Ubuntu 22.04 LTS:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ssh g++ git libboost-atomic-dev libboost-thread-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-date-time-dev libboost-regex-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-random-dev libboost-chrono-dev libboost-serialization-dev libwebsocketpp-dev openssl libssl-dev ninja-build libspdlog-dev libmbedtls-dev libboost-all-dev libconfig++-dev libsctp-dev libfftw3-dev vim libcpprest-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev net-tools smcroute python3-pip clang-tidy gpsd gpsd-clients libgps-dev
sudo snap install cmake --classic
sudo pip3 install cpplint
sudo pip3 install psutil

Install SDR drivers

sudo apt install libsoapysdr-dev soapysdr-tools

Using BladeRF with Soapy

For BladeRF the relevant package is named soapysdr-module-bladerf. Install it by running:

sudo apt install soapysdr-module-bladerf

Finally, install the BladeRF firmware:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nuandllc/bladerf
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bladerf

Check SDR availability

Check if the SDR can be found on your system

SoapySDRUtil --find

The output should look like this:

######################################################
##     Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library     ##
######################################################
Found device 2
  backend = libusb
  device = 0x02:0x09
  driver = bladerf
  instance = 0
  label = BladeRF #0 [ANY]
  serial = ANY

Downloading

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/5G-MAG/rt-mbms-tx-for-qrd-and-crd.git
cd rt-mbms-tx-for-qrd-and-crd
git submodule update
mkdir build && cd build

Building

cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -GNinja ..
ninja

Installing

sudo ninja install

Configuration after installation

Install the configuration: sudo ./srsran_install_configs.sh user

After the installtion, you have to adjust the enb, rr, epc config files to your desired frequency, bandwith, tx gain, MNC, MCC ...

or you can use our templates. Download them and place them in /root/.config/srsran/. You can still change the frequency, gain or whatever if you want to.

Also make sure to copy the adapted sib.conf.mbsfn file to the build directory:

cd rt-mbms-tx-for-qrd-and-crd/
cp sib.conf.mbsfn build/sib.conf.mbsfn

Running

Starting the transmitter requires the follwing 3 steps:

1. Starting the MBMS-Gateway
2. Starting the EPC
3. Starting the ENB

Starting the MBMS-Gateway

sudo srsmbms

The MBMS-GW receives multicast packets on one tunnel interface, packages them to GTP-U-Packets and sends them to ENB over another tunnel interface. The command above creates the sgi_mb interface (you could see it by entering ifconfig for example). In order for the incoming data to be routed correctly, a route has to be added:

sudo route add -net 239.11.4.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 dev sgi_mb

You can use any multicast route.

Starting the EPC

sudo srsepc

Starting the ENB

cd rt-mbms-tx-for-qrd-and-crd/build

sudo srsenb/src/srsenb

After this, the transmitter is running and is ready to receive a multicast stream. Now you can, for example, transcode a local .mp4 file to rtp with ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -stream_loop -1 -re -i <Input-file> -vcodec copy -an -f rtp_mpegts udp://239.11.4.50:9988