A testbed and methodology for initial 5G NSA mobile deployment to provide voice services over IMS using SDR

Abstract

—This work presents a testbed for simulating an initial 5G NSA (Non Standalone) network to provide VoLTE (Voice over LTE) calls. The configuration testbed relies on using open-source projects as well as the Kamailio server for real-time communication and signaling messages using the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) of the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) network. In addition, the Open5GS open source project is used to implement a 4G EPC (Evolved Packet Core) and 5G network functions that were developed using a C language software. A BTS (Base Transceiver Station), composed of a SDR (Software Defined Radio) equipment i.e. USRP (Universal Software Radio Peripheral) complete the testbed setup. The jitter and throughput values are also presented. The contribution of this work is to present a relatively low-cost alternative VoLTE testbed, as well as the availability of an experimental environment for teaching and research within universities.