SDRAN-in-a-Box (RiaB)

SDRAN-in-a-Box (RiaB) is a SD-RAN cluster which is able to operate within a single host machine . It provides a development/test environment for developers/users in ONF SD-RAN community. RiaB deploys SD-RAN infrastructure - the EPC (OMEC), emulated RAN (CU/DU/UE), and ONOS RAN Intelligent Controller (ONOS RIC) services - over Kubernetes. On top of the SD-RAN infrastructure, we can conduct end-to-end tests in terms of the user plane and the SD-RAN control plane.

Features

• Installs Kubernetes and Helm that are the required infrastructure for SD-RAN services
• Provides one of three choices to emulate/simulate Radio Access Networks (RANs)
  • RAN-Simulator
    • Simulates multiple E2 nodes (CU-CP/DU/RU) and UEs
    • Generates SD-RAN control plane messages
    • Does not support the LTE traffic
  • OMEC / CU-CP / OAI nFAPI emulator for DU/UE
    • Completely runs OMEC, a 4G/LTE core network - not emulation
    • Completely runs CU-CP, which generates SD-RAN control plane messages - not emulation
    • Emulates DU and UEs (up to three UEs) with OAI nAFPI emulator, which generate LTE control and user plane traffic
  • OMEC / CU-CP / OAI DU and UE with USRP hardware and/or LTE smartphones
    • Completely runs OMEC, a 4G/LTE core network - not emulation
    • Completely runs CU-CP, which generates SD-RAN control plane messages - not emulation
    • Completely runs OAI DU together with the CU-CP and a USRP device to open a cell - Software Defined Radio (SDR) device-based emulation which commercial LTE phones can attach
    • Completely runs OAI UE with a USRP device to attach the cell the CU-CP and OAI DU opens
• Support End-to-End (E2E) connectivity test
  • The user plane E2E test
    • Works with CU-CP / OAI nFAPI emulator and CU-CP / OAI DU and UE with USRP hardware cases, since RAN-Sim does not support the data traffic
  • The SD-RAN control plane E2E test
    • Works with xAPPs such as onos-kpimon, onos-pci, onos-mlb and onos-mho

RiaB versions and options

Versions

RiaB has three versions: latest, master-stable, dev, and each release/tag such as v1.0.0, v1.1.0, v1.1.1, and v1.2.0.

Latest version

The latest version of RiaB deploys latest Helm charts and latest Docker container images.

Master-stable version

The master-stable version of RiaB deploys latest Helm charts but not latest Docker container images. It deploys the Docker containers according to the image tag described in each Helm chart.

Release/tag versions

The release/tag version such as v1.0.0, v1.1.0, v1.1.1, and v1.2.0 deployes a specific SD-RAN release version of Helm charts and Docker container images.

Dev version

The dev version deploys Helm charts in the ~/helm-charts/sdran-helm-charts directory and Docker container images sdran-in-a-box-values.yaml file. All other versions initially change the ~/helm-charts/sdran-helm-charts branch to the specific version. For example, the latest version and master-stable version change the the ~/helm-charts/sdran-helm-charts branch to master, while the v1.0.0, v1.1.0, v1.1.1, and v1.2.0 versions change that branch to v1.0.0, v1.1.0, v1.1.1, and v1.2.0, respectively. If we change some Helm chart code in ~/helm-charts/sdran-helm-charts directory for a test, the above versions will reset to the master or a specific version branch. However, since the dev option just uses the Helm chart in ~/helm-charts/sdran-helm-charts as is, we can test the Helm chart chages. Also, once we specify image tags in the sdran-in-a-box-values.yaml files, this version deploys the Docker containers with the Helm chart change.

Options

RiaB also has four options: ONOS RIC with OAI nFAPI emulator, ONOS RIC with RAN-Simulator, ONOS RIC with OAI and USRP devices, and Facebook-AirHop xAPP use case.

ONOS RIC with OAI nFAPI emulator option

The ONOS RIC with OAAI nFAPI emulator option deploys ONOS RIC services (i.e., Atomix, onos-operator, onos-topo, onos-config, onos-cli, onos-e2t, onos-e2sub, etc) with OMEC, CU-CP, and OAI nFAPI emulator. It supports E2E connectivities on the data plane and SD-RAN control plane. The data plane is running without the real radio signal, but nFAPI.

ONOS RIC with RAN-Simulator option

The ONOS RIC with RAN-Simulator option deploys ONOS RIC services with RAN-Simulator. It supports an E2E connectivity on the SD-RAN control plane.

ONOS RIC with OAI and USRP devices option

The ONOS RIC with OAI and USRP devices option deploys ONOS RIC services with OMEC, CU-CP, OAI DU, and OAI UE with USRP devices. It supports E2E connectivities on the data plane and SD-RAN control plane. The data plane is running with the real radio signal, so that we can also test with commercial LTE smartphones.

Facebook-AirHop use case option

The Facebook-AirHop use case option is similar to the ONOS RIC with RAN-Simulator option. The only difference is the PCI xAPP. This option deploys the PCI xAPP from Facebook-AirHop, while ONOS RIC with RAN-Simulator option uses ONF ONOS-PCI xAPP.

Detailed information

See docs directory for details of RiaB.