X5G: An Open, Programmable, Multi-vendor, End-to-end, Private 5G O-RAN Testbed with NVIDIA ARC and OpenAirInterface

TL;DR

This paper presents X5G, an open, programmable 5G testbed integrating hardware acceleration, software-defined components, and intelligent controllers to enable high-performance, flexible private 5G networks suitable for diverse deployment scenarios.

Contribution

The paper introduces the first 8-node multi-vendor 5G testbed with integrated GPU-accelerated PHY, open-source software, and real-time RAN control, advancing programmable and high-performance 5G network research.

Findings

Achieved cell rates over 1.65 Gbps downlink and 143 Mbps uplink.

Demonstrated integration of NVIDIA Aerial RAN CoLab, OAI, and RIC in a scalable testbed.

Validated performance with multiple smartphones and emulated UEs.

Abstract

As Fifth generation (5G) cellular systems transition to softwarized, programmable, and intelligent networks, it becomes fundamental to enable public and private 5G deployments that are (i) primarily based on software components while (ii) maintaining or exceeding the performance of traditional monolithic systems and (iii) enabling programmability through bespoke configurations and optimized deployments. This requires hardware acceleration to scale the Physical (PHY) layer performance, programmable elements in the Radio Access Network (RAN) and intelligent controllers at the edge, careful planning of the Radio Frequency (RF) environment, as well as end-to-end integration and testing. In this paper, we describe how we developed the programmable X5G testbed, addressing these challenges through the deployment of the first 8-node network based on the integration of NVIDIA Aerial RAN CoLab Over-the-Air (ARC-OTA), OpenAirInterface (OAI), and a near-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC). The Aerial Software Development Kit (SDK) provides the PHY layer, accelerated on Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), with the higher layers from the OAI open-source project interfaced with the PHY through the Small Cell Forum (SCF) Functional Application Platform Interface (FAPI). An E2 agent provides connectivity to the O-RAN Software Community (OSC) near-real-time RIC. We discuss software integration, network infrastructure, and a digital twin framework for RF planning. We then profile the performance with up to 4 Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) smartphones for each base station with iPerf and video streaming applications, as well as up to 25 emulated User Equipments (UEs), measuring a cell rate higher than 1.65 Gbps in downlink and 143 Mbps in uplink.