More Like this

1. Comprehensive Performance Testing Analysis and Security Vulnerability Detection of a 5G Stand Alone Network using a Firecell Testbed

   https://doi.org/10.5121/ijwmn.2024.16502  

   Anyakora, Ndidi; M_Akujuobi, Cajetan; F_Chouikka, Mohamed (October 2024, International Journal of Wireless & Mobile Networks)

   With the proliferation of 5G networks, evaluating security vulnerabilities is crucial. This paper presents an implemented 5G standalone testbed operating in the mmWave frequency range for research and analysis. Over-the-air testing validates expected throughputs up to 5Gbps downlink and 1Gbps uplink, low latency, and robust connectivity. Detailed examination of captured network traffic provides insights into protocol distribution and signalling flows. The comparative evaluation shows only 0.45% packet loss on the testbed versus 2.7% in prior simulations, proving improved reliability. The results highlight the efficacy of the testbed for security assessments, performance benchmarking, and progression towards 6G systems. This paper demonstrates a robust platform to facilitate innovation in 5G and beyond through practical experimentation.For access to the code, data, and experimental results, visit our GitHub repository(https://github.com/Didilish/5G-SA-Testbed-Analysis) 

   more » « less
2. Wixor: Dynamic TDD Policy Adaptation for 5G/xG Networks

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3696395  

   Hassan, Ahmad; Aggarwal, Shivang; Ibrahim, Mohamed; Sharma, Puneet; Qian, Feng (December 2024, Proceedings of the ACM on Networking)

   In the era of 5G and beyond, dynamic Time Division Duplex (TDD) has become essential for supporting applications that demand high bandwidth and low latency. Emerging uplink-intensive use cases such as real-time video analytics, autonomous vehicles and augmented reality further complicate the balance between uplink and downlink resources. Despite their potential, TDD policies employed by current 5G networks remain underexplored. Our investigation reveals that existing TDD policies are static and predominantly downlink-focused, failing to adapt to fluctuating network demands. We introduce Wixor, a robust dynamic TDD policy adaptation system tailored for 5G and next-generation (xG) networks. It proactively adjusts the allocation of TDD resources between uplink and downlink, addressing various practical challenges. Prototyped on a programmable testbed, Wixor demonstrates substantial performance improvements across diverse applications, achieving up to 96.5% enhancement in Quality of Experience (QoE) compared to existing baselines. 

   more » « less
3. Demo: Decoding Control Information Passively from Standalone 5G Network

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3636534.3698840  

   Wan, Haoran; Cao, Xuyang; Marder, Alexander; Jamieson, Kyle (December 2024, ACM)

   5G New Radio cellular networks are designed to provide high Quality of Service for application on wirelessly connected devices. However, changing conditions of the wireless last hop can degrade application performance, and the applications have no visibility into the 5G Radio Access Network (RAN). Most 5G network operators run closed networks, limiting the potential for co-design with the wider-area internet and user applications. This paper demonstrates NR-Scope, a passive, incrementally-deployable, and independently-deployable Standalone 5G network telemetry system that can passively measure fine-grained RAN capacity, latency, and retransmission information. Application servers can take advantage of the measurements to achieve better millisecond scale, application-level decisions on offered load and bit rate adaptation than end-to-end latency measurements or end-to-end packet losses currently permit. We demonstrate the performance of NR-Scope by decoding the downlink control information (DCI) for downlink and uplink traffic of a 5G Standalone base station in real-time. 

   more » « less
4. An In-Depth Measurement Analysis of 5G mmWave PHY Latency and Its Impact on End-to-End Delay

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28486-1_28  

   Fez, Rostand; Ramadan, Eman; Ye, Wei; Minneci, Benjamin; Xie, Jack; Narayanan, Arvind; Hassan, Ahmad; Qian, Feng; Zhang, Zhi-Li; Chandrashekar, Jaideep; et al (January 2023, In Passive and Active Measurement Conference (PAM) 2023.)

   5G aims to offer not only significantly higher throughput than previous generations of cellular networks, but also promises millisecond (ms) and sub-millisecond (ultra-)low latency support at the 5G physical (PHY) layer for future applications. While prior measurement studies have confirmed that commercial 5G deployments can achieve up to several Gigabits per second (Gbps) throughput (especially with the mmWave 5G radio), are they able to deliver on the (sub) millisecond latency promise? With this question in mind, we conducted to our knowledge the first in-depth measurement study of commercial 5G mmWave PHY latency using detailed physical channel events and messages. Through carefully designed experiments and data analytics, we dissect various factors that influence 5G PHY latency of both downlink and uplink data transmissions, and explore their impacts on end-to-end delay. We find that while in the best cases, the 5G (mmWave) PHY-layer is capable of delivering ms/sub-ms latency (with a minimum of 0.09 ms for downlink and 0.76 ms for uplink), these happen rarely. A variety of factors such as channel conditions, re-transmissions, physical layer control and scheduling mechanisms, mobility, and application (edge) server placement can all contribute to increased 5G PHY latency (and thus end-to-end (E2E) delay). Our study provides insights to 5G vendors, carriers as well as application developers/content providers on how to better optimize or mitigate these factors for improved 5G latency performance. 

   more » « less
5. 5G NR Jamming, Spoofing, and Sniffing: Threat Assessment and Mitigation

   Lichtman, Marc; Rao, Raghunandan; Marojevic, Vuk; Reed, Jeffrey (July 2018, IEEE International Conference on Communications workshops)

   In December 2017, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) released the first set of specifications for 5G New Radio (NR), which is currently the most widely accepted 5G cellular standard. 5G NR is expected to replace LTE and previous generations of cellular technology over the next several years, providing higher throughput, lower latency, and a host of new features. Similar to LTE, the 5G NR physical layer consists of several physical channels and signals, most of which are vital to the operation of the network. Unfortunately, like for any wireless technology, disruption through radio jamming is possible. This paper investigates the extent to which 5G NR is vulnerable to jamming and spoofing, by analyzing the physical downlink and uplink control channels and signals. We identify the weakest links in the 5G NR frame, and propose mitigation strategies that should be taken into account during implementation of 5G NR chipsets and base stations. 

   more » « less