As Fifth generation (5G) cellular systems transition to softwarized, programmable, and intelligent networks, it becomes fundamental to enable public and private 5G deployments that are (i) primarily based on software components while (ii) maintaining or exceeding the performance of traditional monolithic systems and (iii) enabling programmability through bespoke configurations and optimized deployments. This requires hardware acceleration to scale the Physical (PHY) layer performance, programmable elements in the Radio Access Network (RAN) and intelligent controllers at the edge, careful planning of the Radio Frequency (RF) environment, as well as end-to-end integration and testing. In this paper, we describe how we developed the programmable X5G testbed, addressing these challenges through the deployment of the first 8-node network based on the integration of NVIDIA Aerial RAN CoLab (ARC), OpenAirInterface (OAI), and a near-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC). The Aerial Software Development Kit (SDK) provides the PHY layer, accelerated on Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), with the higher layers from the OAI open-source project interfaced with the PHY through the Small Cell Forum (SCF) Functional Application Platform Interface (FAPI). An E2 agent provides connectivity to the O-RAN Software Community (OSC) near-real-time RIC. We discuss software integration, the network infrastructure, and a digital twin framework for RF planning. We then profile the performance with up to 4 Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) smartphones for each base station with iPerf and video streaming applications, measuring a cell rate higher than 500 Mbps in downlink and 45 Mbps in uplink.

翻译：随着第五代（5G）蜂窝系统向软件化、可编程化和智能化网络转型，实现满足以下条件的公共与私有5G部署变得至关重要：（i）主要基于软件组件，（ii）保持或超越传统单体系统的性能，（iii）通过定制化配置与优化部署实现可编程能力。这需要硬件加速以扩展物理（PHY）层性能、在无线接入网（RAN）中部署可编程单元、在边缘部署智能控制器、精细规划射频（RF）环境，以及端到端的集成与测试。本文阐述了可编程X5G测试平台的开发过程，通过部署首个基于NVIDIA Aerial RAN CoLab（ARC）、OpenAirInterface（OAI）与近实时RAN智能控制器（RIC）集成的8节点网络，应对上述挑战。Aerial软件开发套件（SDK）提供基于图形处理器（GPU）加速的PHY层，其上层通过小基站论坛（SCF）功能应用平台接口（FAPI）与OAI开源项目对接。E2代理提供与O-RAN软件社区（OSC）近实时RIC的连接。本文讨论了软件集成方案、网络基础设施及用于射频规划的数字孪生框架。随后通过iPerf与视频流应用对每个基站连接最多4部商用现成（COTS）智能手机的性能进行分析，测得下行链路小区速率超过500 Mbps，上行链路速率达45 Mbps。