5GEN: A tool to generate 5G infrastructure graphs

Abstract

Ongoing research on 5G is looking into software platforms to evaluate new developments on 5G networks. Some 5G hardware is now starting to be available, but it is scarce and very limited, which makes validation and performance evaluation of 5G quite challenging. Simulation is the tool of choice for most of the cases, but this requires creating large descriptor files representing a 5G network. This brings forward the need for tools that facilitate the generation of 5G networks’ topologies. In this paper we present 5GEN, a tool that automatically creates graphs representing 5G networks. With 5GEN, a researcher can simply define the number of resources, and 5GEN will generate the nodes and edges that interconnect them across the infrastructure. The tool has been successfully used to test several 5G network scenarios within the EU 5G-CORAL project.