New POWDER OAI and srsRAN 5G Profiles Available
Experimenters can now rapidly implement and configure their own live 5G network at POWDER with a combination of open source software and up to five outdoor network nodes equipped with software defined radios and edge compute. While POWDER has long supported this type of programmability in its outdoor footprint, the POWDER team has now released pre-packaged profiles that let users instantiate a network nearly instantly and begin experimenting with functionality and performance.
The new profiles use Open5GS for the core network and give researchers the option of implementing either OpenAirInterface (OAI) or srsRAN code for the 5G base station. For user endpoints, the POWDER platform supplies COTS 5G devices located on mobile shuttles that traverse the network area.
The last few years have seen a surge of interest in open source software stacks for the radio access network (RAN). Paired with SDRs, these software stacks act as a counterpoint to traditionally closed wireless systems, exposing network features that researchers can experiment with and improve upon. That flexibility will become increasingly important as the wireless industry moves toward more automation in the RAN and AI/ML-driven operations.
More details are available on the POWDER website.
Direct links to the new POWDER profiles follow.
