Open-Source 5G Core Platforms: A Low-Cost Solution and Performance Evaluation
Maria Barbosa, Marcelo Silva, Ednelson Cavalcanti, Kelvin Dias
TL;DR
The paper addresses how to cheaply deploy and compare open-source 5G Core platforms by building a real SDR-based SA testbed and evaluating four stacks (Free5GC, OpenAirInterface, Open5GS, SD-Core) on COTS hardware. It combines qualitative platform analysis with quantitative measurements of control-plane and data-plane performance, focusing on CP/UP signaling, end-to-end throughput, latency, and resource usage; SD-Core is excluded from CP/UP performance due to Kubernetes constraints. Key findings show Open5GS offers the best CP latency, OpenAirInterface delivers the strongest data-plane performance, and Free5GC consumes the least resources, guiding choices for cost-constrained deployments. The work provides practical guidance for researchers and practitioners selecting a 5GC stack and highlights avenues for automation and integration with Kubernetes and SD-Core in future studies.
Abstract
An essential component for the Fifth Generation of Mobile Networks deployments is the 5G Core (5GC), which bridges the 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) to the rest of the Internet. Some open-source platforms for the 5GC have emerged and been deployed in Common Off-the-Shelf (COTS)-based setups. Despite these open-source 5GC initiatives following the 3GPP specifications, they differ in implementing some features and their stages in the timeline of 3GPP releases. Besides that, they may yield different performance to metrics related to the data and control planes. This article reviews the major open-source 5GC platforms and evaluates their performance in a 5G Standalone (SA) COTS-based testbed. The results indicate that Open5GS provides the best latencies for control plane procedures, OpenAirInterface offers the highest data rates, and Free5GC has the lowest resource consumption.