5G O-RAN前端網路之FlexRAN O-DU C-plane之一致性測試自動化

Abstract

行動通訊技術的發展從1980至今，每隔10年便更新一代，到了後期第四代與第五代網路的興起，隨著通訊量的增加以及對通訊品質要求的提升，架構複雜度也相對地增加，而網路功能虛擬化的趨勢促使開放式無線接入網路架構的出現更是打破了以往由傳統設備商壟斷市場的態勢。開放式無線接入網路架構也使得各個公司得以建構出各自具有競爭力的解決方案。 然而，開放式無線接入網路的軟硬體標準化難度高，各家業者也必須在組件功能以及各家廠商之機台上通過一系列的產品驗證測試以符合規範，才得以在市面上提供5G網路設備與服務。由於電信設備系統的穩定度是相當重要的一環，因此測試項目數量相當的多，每一測項亦須諸多時間進行調校。 本研究的目的即是研發一個節省成本的內部測試系統以便利地對分散式單元進行一致性測試，並針對一致性測試當中的即時性封包傳送進行正確性之評估。實驗結果顯示，利用該測試工具，讓我們找出了FlexRAN相關錯誤資訊，證實該測試工具於一致性測試之功效，也提供了分散式單元一致性測試一個解決辦法。

The development of mobile communication technology has been updated every ten years since 1980. In the later period, the fourth and fifth-generation networks have emerged. With the increase demand of traffic and the improvement of communication quality requirements, the complexity of the architecture becomes high relative to the previous generations. The trend of network function virtualization has led to the emergence of an open radio access network architecture, which has broken the previous monopoly of the market by traditional equipment manufacturers. Companies can use the open radio access network architecture to create their own innovative and competitive open solutions. However, the standardization of software and hardware in open radio access networks is difficult, and manufacturers must pass a series of product verification tests on component functionality and multi-vendor interoperability to meet the specifications before they can provide 5G network equipment and services to the market. Since the stability of the telecommunications equipment system is very important, the number of test items is quite large, and each test item also requires a lot of time to adjust. The purpose of this study is to develop a cost-effective in-house test system to facilitate conformance testing on Distributing Units (DU) without spending money on other companies' testing tools. Since there are a lot to deal with conformance testing, we focus on the correctness of the packets delivered real-time by the Distributing Units. The experimental results show that using this automatic enabling kit, we can find out the abnormal packets transmitted in the 5G fronthaul network of FlexRAN, which proves the efficacy of the conformance test, and proposed an innovation idea for conformance testing on Distribution Units.