5G User Plane Load Simulator
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Publicerad
2021
Författare
DÜSTERDIECK, OLOF
HUDA, TASDIKUL
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
As the commercial introduction of 5G networks is getting closer, the deployment of
testing technology able to perform at the requirements specified for 5G, is of utmost
importance. As a company on the leading edge of 5G deployment, Ericsson manages
mobile traffic by developing a gateway known as the Evolved Packet Gateway
(EPG).
EPG is the main component responsible for bridging the gap for data packets between
5G base stations and servers on the Internet. Following the 5G design, EPG
is split into a Control Plane (CP) and a User Plane (UP). The purpose of this
thesis is to implement a 5G network simulator that is able to load test a physical
5G User Plane which is used to route traffic in a mobile network.
The simulator is able to simulate traffic in both the uplink and downlink direction
as well as sending traffic on several different user sessions. To simulate traffic,
three different traffic models, steady-rate, step-wise rate and Poisson processes,
are used. In each simulation, the traffic is stateless and follows a client-to-server
architecture. All parts included in this architecture is simulated, except for the UP.
To analyze the results of a test, we define several different performance metrics such
as throughput and latency. These are evaluated using evaluation techniques such
as Control Charts. Several sets of experiments are performed in which we verify
the implemented load types and measure the maximum rate of both the simulator
and the UP.
Using these results, it is possible to analyze the scalability of the UP and our simulator.
We conclude that our simulator performs above the required rate to load
test the UP for most scenarios with differing number of users and flows per each
user. Where this is not the case, ideas and suggestions on how the simulator can
be enhanced additionally are given. We also conclude that the UP scales very well
with an increased number of users and that it performs above the proposed 5G
requirements.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
5G , EPG , User Plane , load testing , mobile networking , network simulator , traffic modeling