Implementation of Edge Servers on an Open 5G Core Network

Abstract

In 5G networks, edge servers play a major role in reducing the latency of services that users experience by locating the service processing at the network border near the users. This paper aims to implement edge servers on a 5G core network by using available open-source software tools. However, there is no open-source software tools for implementing an edge server as an Application Function (AF) of 5G core network as suggested by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). To cope with this problem, open-source orchestration platforms based on Kubernetes such as MicroK8s and K3sup which support High Availability (HA) feature with multi-master, have been explored and employed to create edge servers as an additional function to cooperate with 5G core network. In the experiment, the performance of the edge servers implemented by MicroK8s and K3sup are measured and compared in terms of time delay, delay jitter, upload speed, and download speed. From the experiment results, the edge servers created by both platforms show no explicit advantage over each other.