What can Virtualization do for 5G Networks: Our experiences of building a 5G Testbed

In order to enhance 5G R&D capability in India and increase our participation in global standardization activities, a 5G Testbed project involving a few of the prominent technical institutions of the country was initiated by the Department of Telecom, Govt of India in the year 2017-18. Some of the other goals of the project are to boost product design & manufacturing in the country and also encourage telecom product start-ups. As a part of the 5G Testbed project, we have been working on the development of the Core Network components and the support for WiFi access in 5G Networks. We are also developing a Multi-RAT SDN Controller to control and manage multiple radio access technologies in a unified manner. The 5G Testbed utilizes SDN and NFV, two key virtualization techniques as fundamental building blocks. With the help of SDN & NFV, we have been able to virtualize the complete 5G network and deploy it fully in the cloud. Interestingly, one of the unforeseen takeaways of the virtualization is that it has enabled us to continue the development & testing activities “virtually” uninterrupted during this pandemic. The talk will highlight our experiences of using these virtualization techniques in the testbed and the advantages they may bring.