COINS: ContinuOus IntegratioN in wirelesS technology development

TL;DR

COINS is a framework that integrates continuous testing practices into wireless technology development, specifically for 5G MTC networks, by upgrading testbeds with new software, hardware, and virtualization technologies.

Contribution

The paper introduces COINS, a novel framework that enables continuous integration in wireless testbeds, combining web services, virtualization, and IoT technologies for 5G network testing.

Findings

Successfully implemented COINS on a 5G MTC testbed.

Enhanced testbed capabilities with new software and hardware functionalities.

Identified open challenges for broader adoption of CI in wireless development.

Abstract

Network testing plays an important role in the iterative process of developing new communication protocols and algorithms. However, test environments have to keep up with the evolution of technology and require continuous update and redesign. In this paper, we propose COINS, a framework that can be used by wireless technology developers to enable continuous integration (CI) practices in their testbed infrastructure. As a proof-of-concept, we provide a reference architecture and implementation of COINS for controlled testing of multi-technology 5G Machine Type Communication (MTC) networks. The implementation upgrades an existing wireless experimentation testbed with new software and hardware functionalities. It blends web service technology and operating system virtualization technologies with emerging Internet of Things technologies enabling CI for wireless networks. Moreover, we also extend an existing qualitative methodology for comparing similar frameworks and identify and discuss open challenges for wider use of CI practices in wireless technology development.