Heroes and generals prototype srvcer software#

In that case, a UE with external antennas becomes really handy, e.g., the Huawei B593 family of products is what we have used (added bonus that it works great with the OAI EPC). Alternatively, you can do all of your testing conducted over cables in your lab. For example, in the US you’ll need to contact the FCC to apply for a Special Temporary Authority for the frequency of your choice. Even though this set up is for tinkering, you will need a plan for regulatory compliance if you want to go over-the-air.So we discussed the basics, but there are a couple of other bits you need to line up to get everything working:

But again, it’s free! And it supports some mainstream readily accessible phones, which is pretty sweet. LTE has many variations on the attach procedure, but not all are supported by OAI’s EPC currently. Many phones work, for example, the Samsung S7, Moto G4, but others don’t. Does this limit your plug-n-play interoperability testing a bit? Sure, but overall the solution is tough to beat for the price.Īnother thing to watch out for is UE interoperability. Also, note the SGW and PGW are a single executable, so the S5/S8 interfaces are not exposed, even though it’s a solid line in Figure 1. It’s open source, so the stability is ok, but don’t expect weeks of uptime. In addition to the great docs on the OAI wiki, do some googling and you’ll see many forum posts and how-to sites around the web, e.g., here is a great tutorial for doing EPC + eNB in a single PC. But for a Linux ninja, even one with limited LTE knowledge, it can be up and running in a day.įor help getting it going, OAI has a great wiki with a bunch of how-to docs and mailing lists that are quite active. With my limited Linux chops, it took me a couple of days to get everything happy and running. Once downloaded and built you get four executables: eNB, HSS, S/PGW, and MME. 1: Open Air Interface Functional Elements

The evolved packet core (EPC) called “openair-cn”įigure 1 shows the LTE functional elements included in each project:įig.

The eNodeB (eNB) called “openairinterface5G”.

Heroes and generals prototype srvcer software#

This OAI software is broken into two projects: The LTE system software comes from an open source project called Open Air Interface (OAI). Replacement of any device with a similarly spec’d product from a different manufacturer should be fine (this list is not meant to be prescriptive or seen as an endorsement).įor both machines, we use Ubuntu as our OS. HardwareĪn example bill of materials is below. Using this setup, we have the freedom to do just that. Don’t get me wrong, we love collaborating with industry partners here at CableLabs, but it’s great to kick the tires on an idea before you start engaging outside partners. With a cheap and fully open source LTE network we can explore novel use cases, configurations, and deployment architectures, without the need for outside collaboration. In addition to the great learnings that came from my efforts, we (CableLabs) have ended up with a great tool for research and experimentation.

It turns out there are open source solutions and low-cost parts out there that let you build a simple LTE network (eNB + EPC) for about $1500. I’ve been studying LTE since about 2013, but the last couple of months building and configuring LTE components in the lab have taught me about as much as the prior years combined. My tinker target as of late has been LTE networks. Now that I’ve matured a bit (eh hem), this tendency manifests less as a risk of bodily harm and more as time spent in the lab tinkering. Growing up this always terrified my parents. For those of you interested in this wireless future, below, I'll explain how you can build your very own LTE network on a budget. But today, wireless is rapidly shifting to mean mobile, or more specifically 4G LTE and/or 5G. In the past, wireless meant Wi-Fi if you were talking to a cable nerd. If you’re in a technology role in the cable industry, you’re probably aware that cable is undergoing a tectonic shift from “the future is wired” to “the future is wireless.” Wireless means a lot of things to a lot of people.