Part 5. Validate the Setup#

In this section, you will validate the ARC-OTA setup using bi-directional UDP.

Step 1: Add the SIM User Profile#

Modify the following files:

  • oai_db.sql

    There are 3 UEs pre-configured in this file. To find them, search for 001010000000001 and add or edit them as needed.

  • ./targets/PROJECTS/GENERIC-NR-5GC/CONF/gnb-vnf.sa.band78.273prb.aerial.conf

    Modify this file on the gNB server if you want to change the MCC and MNC in the gNB config file.

Step 2: Setup the UE and SIM Card#

For reference, use the following: SIM cards – 4G and 5G reference software (open-cells.com)

Program the SIM Card with the Open Cells Project application “uicc-v2.6”, which can be downloaded here.

Use the ADM code specific to the SIM card. If the wrong ADM is used 8 times, the SIM card will be permanently locked.

sudo ./program_uicc --adm 12345678 --imsi 001010000000001 --isdn 00000001 --acc 0001 --key fec86ba6eb707ed08905757b1bb44b8f --opc C42449363BBAD02B66D16BC975D77CC1 -spn "OpenAirInterface" --authenticate
Existing values in USIM
ICCID: 89860061100000000191
WARNING: iccid luhn encoding of last digit not done
USIM IMSI: 208920100001191
USIM MSISDN: 00000191
USIM Service Provider Name: OpenCells191
Setting new values
Reading UICC values after uploading new values
ICCID: 89860061100000000191
WARNING: iccid luhn encoding of last digit not done
USIM IMSI: 001010000000001
USIM MSISDN: 00000001
USIM Service Provider Name: OpenAirInterface
Succeeded to authentify with SQN: 64
set HSS SQN value as: 96

Commercial UE Configuration Setup#

Install the “Magic IPERF” application on the UE:

  1. To test with commercial UE, a test SIM card with Milenage support is required. The following must be provisioned on the SIM card and must match the Core Network settings: mcc, mnc, IMSI, Ki, OPc.

  2. The APN on the commercial UE should be configured according to the Core Network settings.

  3. Start the DNS. Core Network should assign a mobile IP address and DNS. If DNS is not assigned, set the DNS with the other Android app.

Step 3. Running End-to-End OTA#

This section describes how to run end-to-end (E2E) traffic from the UE to the edge Core Network.

Note

The UE can connect as close as 2-3 meters, with a maximum range of 10-15 meters. The connection distance outside of buildings has not been verified.

Start CN5G Core Network#

Use the following commands to start the CN5G Core Network.

cd ~/openairinterface5g/ci-scripts/yaml_files/sa_gh_gnb
docker compose -f docker-compose-cn-gh.yaml up -d

Start the CN5G Edge Application#

After the CN5G is started, use the oai-ext-dn container to run IPERF.

docker exec -it oai-ext-dn /bin/bash

Start Aerial cuBB on the gNB#

Execute the following command to set up the cuBB container.

# Run on host: start a docker terminal
docker exec -it $AERIAL_CUBB_CONTAINER /bin/bash

Follow the Aerial cuBB documentation to build and run the cuphycontroller. The following instructions are for building and setting up the environment for running cuphycontroller. The following commands must be run from inside the cuBB container.

cd /opt/nvidia/cuBB
export cuBB_SDK=$(pwd)
cmake -Bbuild -GNinja -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cuPHY/cmake/toolchains/grace-cross
cmake --build build

The Aerial cuPHY configuration files are located in the /opt/nvidia/cuBB/cuPHY-CP/cuphycontroller/config directory.

For ARC-OTA 1.6, the setup has been validated with the following configuration files:

  • cuphycontroller_P5G_FXN_GH.yaml for the Supermicro GH200 server.

Before running the cuphycontroller, edit the cuphycontroller_<xyz>.yaml configuration file to point to the correct MAC address of the O-RU and the correct PCIe address of the FH interface on the gNB. Determine whether the NIC address is correct.

sed -i "s/ nic:.*/ nic: 0000:b5:00.0/" ${cuBB_SDK}/cuPHY-CP/cuphycontroller/config/cuphycontroller_<xyz>.yaml
sed -i "s/ dst_mac_addr:.*/ dst_mac_addr: 6c:ad:ad:00:02:02/" ${cuBB_SDK}/cuPHY-CP/cuphycontroller/config/cuphycontroller_<xyz>.yaml
sed -i "s/ vlan:.*/ vlan: 2/" ${cuBB_SDK}/cuPHY-CP/cuphycontroller/config/cuphycontroller_<xyz>.yaml

When the build is done and the configuration files are updated, exit the container. Run the following to commit the changes to a new image. The name of the image will be used later in the Docker Compose configuration.

docker commit $AERIAL_CUBB_CONTAINER cubb-build:25-2

Creating the NVIPC Source Code Package#

In the latest release, NVIPC is no longer included in the OAI repository. You must copy the source package from the Aerial cuBB container and add it to the OAI build files. Execute the following to create the nvipc_src.<data>.tar.gz file.

docker exec -it $AERIAL_CUBB_CONTAINER ./cuPHY-CP/gt_common_libs/pack_nvipc.sh
docker cp $AERIAL_CUBB_CONTAINER:/opt/nvidia/cuBB/cuPHY-CP/gt_common_libs/nvipc_src.<date>.tar.gz ~/openairinterface5g

This will create and copy the nvipc_src.<data>.tar.gz archive that is required to build OAI L2+ for Aerial. Instructions can also be found in the Aerial FAPI.

Build gNB Docker Image#

In ARC-OTA 1.6, the OAI image is built in two steps. Instructions can be found in the Aerial FAPI tutorial.

Note

When building a Docker image, the files are copied from the filesystem into the image. After you build the image, you must make changes to the configuration inside the container.

Build OAI L2 image#

Note

Pre-build steps are no longer required with the new 2024.w21+ARC1.5 branch.

Use the below commands to build the OAI L2 code:

cd ~/openairinterface5g/
docker build . -f docker/Dockerfile.base.ubuntu22 --tag ran-base:latest
docker build . -f docker/Dockerfile.gNB.aerial.ubuntu22 --tag oai-gnb-aerial:latest

This will create two images:

  • ran-base:latest includes the environment to build the OAI source code. This will be used then building the oai-gnb-aerial:latest image.

  • oai-gnb-aerial:latest will be used later in the Docker Compose script to create the OAI L2 container.

Run gNB with Docker Compose#

ARC-OTA 1.6 includes a Docker Compose configuration for running gNB software. Refer to the OAI instructions on how to run with Docker Compose. The Docker Compose configuration for SMC-GH servers is located in the following file path:

~/openairinterface5g/ci-scripts/yaml_files/sa_gh_gnb/docker-compose-gnb.yaml

Before starting the gNB, you will need to update the docker-compose.yaml file.

On line 64, if you follow the guide, change the taskset -c for the OAI container as follows.

taskset -c 13-20

Docker Compose will start containers running cuBB and OAI L2+. The Docker Compose script includes an entry-point script for cuBB. The script points at the cuphycontroller_xxx.yaml configuration that you want to run. The script will determine the server used (currently, only SMC-GH is supported) and use the correct cuphycontroller_xxx.yaml file. If you want to use a custom configuration, you can also supply that as an argument in the Docker Compose file. This script is located in the following file path:

~/openairinterface5g/ci-scripts/yaml_files/sa_gh_gnb/aerial_l1_entrypoint.sh

You can now run ARC-OTA with the below commands.

cd ~/openairinterface5g/ci-scripts/yaml_files/sa_gh_gnb
docker compose -f docker-compose-gnb.yaml up -d
// console of cuBB
docker logs -f nv-cubb
// console of oai
docker logs -f oai-gnb-aerial
// tail -f /var/log/aerial/oai.log

After following the instructions, you should have the following images:

$ docker image ls
REPOSITORY                                                TAG                                                             IMAGE ID       CREATED          SIZE
cubb-build                                                25-2                                                            be7a5a94f2d3   10 seconds ago   26GB
nvcr.io/qhrjhjrvlsbu/aerial-cuda-accelerated-ran          25-2-cubb                                                       a66cf2a45fad   2 months ago    25.5GB
oai-gnb-aerial                                            latest                                                          0856b9969f42   3 weeks ago      4.88GB
ran-base                                                  latest                                                          c5d060d23529   3 weeks ago      2.42GB

CUE Connecting to 5G Network#

Take the commercial UE out of airplane mode to start attaching the UE to the network. Make sure that the CUE is in airplane mode before starting OAI L2 stack.

Observe 5G Connect Status#

Refer to the Preamble log in the cuphycontroller console output.

Check the Core Network log or commercial UE log to determine whether NAS authentication and PDU session succeeded.

Run E2E Iperf Traffic#

Start ping, iperf, or other network app tests after the PDU session connects successfully.

You can install and run the “Magic IPerf” Android application on the commercial UE for this purpose.

Ping Test#

Ping the UE from the CN:

docker exec -it oai-ext-dn ping 10.0.0.2

Ping from the UE to the CN:

ping -I 10.0.0.2 192.168.70.135
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