Upcoming 5G and Beyond 5G (B5G) cellular networks aim to improve the efficiency and flexibility of mobile networks by incorporating various technologies, such as Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV), and Network Slicing (NS). In this paper, we share our findings, accompanied by a comprehensive online codebase, about the best practice of using different open-source projects in order to realize a flexible testbed for academia and industrial Research and Development (R&D) activities on the future generation of cellular networks. In particular, a Cloud-Native Cellular Network Framework (CN2F) is presented which uses OpenAirInterface's codebase to generate cellular Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) and deploys Kubernetes to disperse and manage them among some worker nodes. Moreover, CN2F leverages ONOS and Mininet to emulate the effect of the IP transport networks in the fronthaul and backhaul of real cellular networks. In this paper, we also showcase two use cases of CN2F to demonstrate the importance of Edge Computing (EC) and the capability of Radio Access Network (RAN) slicing.

翻译：摘要：即将到来的5G及超5G（B5G）蜂窝网络旨在通过融合软件定义网络（SDN）、网络功能虚拟化（NFV）和网络切片（NS）等多种技术，提升移动网络的效率与灵活性。本文结合一套全面的在线代码库，分享了关于利用不同开源项目构建灵活测试平台的最佳实践，以支持学术界和工业界面向下一代蜂窝网络的研发（R&D）活动。具体而言，我们提出了一种云原生蜂窝网络框架（CN2F），该框架利用OpenAirInterface的代码库生成蜂窝虚拟网络功能（VNF），并部署Kubernetes以在多个工作节点间分发与管理这些功能。此外，CN2F借助ONOS和Mininet来模拟真实蜂窝网络前传与回传中IP传输网络的效果。本文还通过两个CN2F用例，展示了边缘计算（EC）的重要性以及无线接入网（RAN）切片的能力。