5G-Core with RAN on Openshift-4

This repository provides a complete up to date (See Release Notes Below) 5G Stack with RAN Simulation on Red Hat Openshift. We enabled Metrics Collection with Red Hat Open Telemetry (OTel) Operator and Openshift Service Mesh 3 for Complete Observability of 5G Applications. The harvested CNF data being used by Grafana Dashboard for Visualization of these Aplications' Performances.

Release Notes: https://github.com/open5gs/open5gs/releases/tag/v2.7.5

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Features

• Fully containerized 5G Core Network Functions based on Open5GS v2.7.5
• Simulated RAN environment with UERANSIM v3.2.6
• Comprehensive monitoring stack with Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger, ELK
• Service Mesh integration with OpenShift Service Mesh 3 (Istio Upstream)
• Optimized HTTP configuration using HTTP/1.1 for SBI communications
• Automated deployment scripts for easy installation and configuration
• Custom metrics and dashboards for 5G Core performance monitoring

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Architecture Components

5G Core Network Functions

Component	Description
AMF	Access and Mobility Management Function - handles registration and connection management
SMF	Session Management Function - manages PDU sessions and IP address allocation
UPF	User Plane Function - handles user data packet forwarding and QoS enforcement
NRF	Network Repository Function - service registry for 5G service discovery
UDM	Unified Data Management - subscriber data management
UDR	Unified Data Repository - subscriber data storage
AUSF	Authentication Server Function - handles authentication procedures
PCF	Policy Control Function - manages network policies
NSSF	Network Slice Selection Function - handles network slice selection
WebUI	Web interface for subscriber management
MongoDB	Database for storing subscriber data

RAN Simulation (UERANSIM Single POD with 3 Containers)

Component	Description
gNB	Simulated 5G base station
UE	Simulated 5G user equipment/device
UE Binder	Helper container for network configuration

Monitoring Stack

Component	Description
OTel	Data Ingest, Process and Export
Prometheus	Metrics storage
Grafana	Metrics visualization with custom 5G dashboards
Loki	Log storage and indexing
Tempo	Traces

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Prerequisites

• OpenShift Container Platform 4.18+ (tested on 4.18.9)
• Red Hat build of OpenTelemetry
• OSSM3-v3.0.0
• Cluster administrator access
• SCTP protocol support enabled on worker nodes
• Sufficient cluster resources (at least 3 worker nodes recommended)
• OpenShift CLI (oc) installed and configured
• The following additional operators installed:
  • Kiali Operator
  • OpenTelemetry Operator
  • Tempo Operator

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Installation

1. Prepare the Cluster

First, clone this repository and run the preparation script to install required operators and configure the service mesh:

git clone https://github.com/open-experiments/sandbox-5g.git
cd sandbox-5g
./prepstep.sh

This script (To Be Run ONLY ONCE!) will:

• Install required operators via subscription
• Enable Gateway API support
• Set up Minio for Tempo tracing
• Install OpenTelemetry Collector
• Configure OpenShift Service Mesh 3
• Set up Kiali for visualization
• Enable SCTP protocol on worker nodes (requires node reboot)

2. Deploy the 5G Core

Deploy the Open5GS 5G Core network functions:

./install-open5gcore.sh

This will:

• Create a dedicated namespace for the 5G Core
• Add the namespace to the service mesh
• Deploy all core network functions in the correct order
• Configure network policies for Service-Based Interface (SBI)
• Create a default subscriber profile
• Apply istio gateway configuration

3. Deploy Monitoring Stack

Set up the monitoring infrastructure:

./install-monitoring.sh

This creates:

• Prometheus instance with ServiceMonitor for 5G Core metrics
• Grafana with pre-configured dashboards for 5G Core monitoring
• Tempo for distributed tracing
• Loki for log management

4. Deploy UERANSIM

Deploy the simulated Radio Access Network components:

./ran/deploy-ueransim.sh

This script automatically:

• Discovers the AMF IP address
• Creates appropriate ConfigMaps
• Deploys gNB and UE components
• Configures the UE Binder for network connectivity

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Accessing the Components

After deployment, you can access the following interfaces:

Component	Access Method	Default Credentials
5G Core WebUI	https://$(oc get route open5gs-webui -n open5gcore -o jsonpath='{.spec.host}')	admin / 1423
Grafana	https://$(oc get route grafana -n open5gs-monitoring -o jsonpath='{.spec.host}')	admin / admin
Prometheus	https://$(oc get route prometheus -n open5gs-monitoring -o jsonpath='{.spec.host}')	N/A

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Configuration

Default Network Settings

The deployment uses these default settings:

• MCC: 999 (Test Network)
• MNC: 70
• TAC: 7
• SST/SD: 1/000001
• Default UE: IMSI 999700000000001

Customizing the Deployment

You can customize the deployment by editing the following files:

• Core settings: Modify deploy-open5gcore.sh to change MCC, MNC, and other core parameters
• UE settings: Modify 5gran-ue-configmap.yaml to change UE parameters
• gNB settings: The gNB config is dynamically generated in deploy-ueransim.sh
• Monitoring settings: Modify dashboard definitions in deploy-monitoring.sh

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Testing the Deployment

Verifying Core Connectivity

Check if all pods are running:

oc get pods -n open5gcore

Verify that the gNB can connect to the AMF:

oc logs deployment/5gran -c gnb -n open5gcore

Testing Data Connectivity

Check if the UE has successfully connected and received an IP address:

oc logs deployment/5gran -c ue -n open5gcore

Verify data connectivity through the UE binder:

oc logs deployment/5gran -c uebinder -n open5gcore

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Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. gNB cannot connect to AMF:

   • Verify that SCTP is enabled on nodes
   • Check AMF pod logs for connection issues
   • Ensure network policies allow connections

2. UE cannot register:

   • Check that the subscriber exists in MongoDB -> Go to the WebUI (admin/1423) to check the record.
   • Verify AMF and UDM logs for authentication issues
   • Ensure the UE configuration matches core settings

3. HTTP/2 errors in component logs:

   • This deployment uses HTTP/1.1 to avoid HTTP/2 errors
   • Check if any component has http2: true in its configuration

Accessing Logs

Check component logs using:

oc logs deployment/<component-name> -n open5gcore

For more detailed analysis, use Kibana to query logs across all components.

Service Mesh with LightSpeed

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Cleanup

Remove UERANSIM

./ran/delete-ueransim.sh

Remove 5G Monitoring

./delete-monitoring.sh

This will:

• Delete all monitoring components

Remove 5G Core

./delete-open5gcore.sh

This will:

• Delete all deployments, services, and routes
• Remove ConfigMaps
• Provide an option to delete persistent volume claims for MongoDB

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Performance Considerations

• The default resource limits are set for a development environment
• For production use, increase CPU/memory limits in deployment templates
• MongoDB performance is critical - consider using a dedicated storage class

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Security Considerations

• This deployment uses privileged containers for UPF and UE
• Custom SCCs are applied to the namespace
• TLS termination is handled at the OpenShift routes
• For production, implement additional network policies and use external identity providers

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License

This project is based on:

• Open5GS - AGPL-3.0
• UERANSIM - GPL-3.0

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Acknowledgments

• Open5GS Community
• UERANSIM Project

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.