Evaluating Open-Source 5G SA Testbeds: Unveiling Performance Disparities in RAN Scenarios

Fifth generation (5G) standalone (SA) mobile networks are rapidly gaining prominence worldwide, and becoming increasingly prevalent as the telecommunication industry standard. Most published work concerning 5G applications relies on open-source 5G radio access network (RAN) simulation and emulation tools to evaluate various concepts, algorithms, and use cases. However, these tools are not always accurate in conveying a realistic representation of real-world RAN performance and expected quality of service (QoS). This paper discusses the deployment of a 5G SA testbed supporting three different RAN scenarios of real and simulated deployments using open-source software, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware, and software defined radios (SDRs). We experimentally evaluate the performance of these scenarios for the RAN and quantify their differences in terms of computational resource utilization, throughput, latency, coverage, and power consumption. Specifically, we explore the emulation and simulation tools' ability to reflect realistic RAN performance and highlight the differences compared to the SDR-based deployment. Through this analysis, this paper provides insights into the performance of each approach and sheds light on the feasibility of using open-source software for 5G testing and experimentation.