The groups hope to kickstart 5G RAN xApp research with the new tool
Mavenir has announced the release of ns-O-RAN, an open-source Open RAN simulator developed with researchers at Northeastern University’s Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things (WIoT). Mavenir claims it’s the first open-source platform for end-to-end simulation of 5G Open RAN wireless networks.
Mavenir explained that the foundation of ns-O-RAN is ns-3, a popular open-source network event simulator that’s licensed under the GNU GPLv2 license, “a functional end-to-end network simulator that simulates all the layers of the RAN protocol stack along with core network functions and mobile traffic applications.”
“The ns-O-RAN simulator integrates ns-3 with O-RAN-compliant features, including the E2 application protocol and service models, to interface with an O-RAN standards-compliant Near-RT RIC,” said Mavenir in a statement.
The goal of ns-O-RAN is to help kickstart research on control of 5G RAN systems using xApps and the Open RAN interfaces, according to Prof. Tommaso Melodia, the director of Northeastern University’s Institute for WIoT.
“This includes research and development of methods and techniques based on big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI),” said Melodia.
The simulator enables data collection of RAN key performance metrics at scale in different scenarios such as using different applications like multimedia streaming, web browsing, virtual reality and more, Mavenir explained.
“ns-O-RAN supports an O-RAN-compliant E2 interface and implements two E2 service models (E2SM), E2SM-Key Performance Metrics (KPM) monitoring and E2SM-RAN Control (RC), that enable a closed-loop control (for example, of traffic steering and mobility),” said Mavenir.
Northeastern and Mavenir have already used the new open-source tool to prototype xApps to manage intelligent closed-loop control of handovers, according to Bejoy Pankajakshan, EVP and Chief Technology & Strategy Officer at Mavenir.
“The integration of ns-O-RAN and O-RAN-compliant Near-RT RICs makes it possible to develop xApps once and test them against simulation before transitioning them to testbeds and commercial public or private 5G deployments, thus making ns-O-RAN a key platform for the development and testing of intelligent xApps,” said Pankajakshan.
The two groups see ns-O-RAN as an extension of the work Northeastern University has already done with OpenRAN Gym. OpenRAN Gym is a publicly available research platform developed at Northeastern expressly for the development of Open RAN experimentation at scale. OpenRAN Gym enables end-to-end design and testing of data-driven xApps by offering an O-RAN-compliant near-real-time RIC and E2 termination. OpenRAN Gym has already been used to develop and demo xApps for RAN slicing and spectrum management using publicly available experimental testbeds including the Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) and Colosseum, developed with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
