On the Deployment of an Open-Source, 5G-Aware Evaluation Testbed

This paper focuses on the design and deployment of a virtualized evaluation testbed, solely based on open-source software components to support the full extend of features and functional requirements of dominant architectural concepts of 5G, such as Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC). For meeting the elevated standards of performance and versatility set by existing 5G architectural approaches, we introduce a perplexed, yet fully customizable platform, capable of supporting all prerequisites of contemporary deployments, paired with backwards compatibility of pre-existing applications and workflows through specific component integration. However, the most important contribution of the proposed architectural blueprint is that alleviates the thorny issues of rapid service instantiation demand and increased networking performance requirements, by supporting both container and virtual machine (VM) orchestration. By extending its cornerstone element, Kuryr to leverage certain Openstack networking attributes, use ManageIQ as the orchestration module for containers as well as VMs, and align to the principles of both NFV and MEC, the proposed evaluation testbed is considered a solid candidate platform for conducting real-world solution testing, without the licensing premium.