This presentation demonstrates the integration of cloud-native testing for the ORAN E2 interface using the CNF Test Suite. The ORAN E2 interface is a key component of Radio Intelligent Controllers (RIC) and XApps, which are important elements of the ORAN architecture. The CNF Test Suite is used for this testing process, employing tools like SRSRAN to validate the e2 traffic between the DU and the RIC. These tools are designed to test cloud-native network functions (CNFs) in a Kubernetes environment, evaluating them against various characteristics such as configuration, compatibility, state management, resilience, and security in your CI/CD pipeline.

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Cloud Native O-RAN Testing
in Your Pipeline
Andre Puschmann, Software Radio Systems
W.Watson, Vulk Cooperative

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Cloud Native O-RAN Testing in Your Pipeline
May 1, 2024 | San Jose, CA
2:00pm - 2:30pm PT
W. Watson
Principal
Vulk Cooperative
Andre Puschmann
VP Engineering
Software Radio Systems Ltd

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• Who are we?
• What is the srsRAN Project?
• Why should we test O-RAN Interfaces?
• Which O-RAN interface are we testing?
• What tools did we use to test?
• Demo
Agenda

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Building The Linux Kernel of RAN
• Complete
• Portable
• Performant
• Open
• Flexible
• Interoperable

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Key Features and Performance
• 3GPP Release 17 aligned - eMBB and NTN support
• All relevant interfaces defined in 3GPP/ORAN/SCF
• All bandwidths for FDD/TDD FR1
• MIMO 4T4R - 4 layer downlink DL and 2 layer UL
• ORAN 7.2 split for RU
• All RRC and MAC procedures including mobility
Performance:
• 500+ UEs per cell, 24/7 operation
• 1500 Mbps DL, 200 Mbps UL (w/o HW acceleration)

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srsRAN User Experience and Engagement
Simplify Telco!
• Documentation
• Developers guide
• Testing
• Application notes
• Github discussions
Get it all on docs.srsran.com Engagement
Guides
Code Testing

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Development Workflow and CI/CD for RAN
• New testing challenges
• New components, interfaces and vendors
• End-to-end approach involving RAN equipment
• Testing means
• Extensive In-house CI/CD pipelines
• 4845 unit and integration tests, 140 E2E
• ORAN Test and Integration Centers, e.g. POWDER
testbed at Utah
• Vision
• Truly open, inclusive, and vendor-agnostic testing facility
• Open test plans and test cases as code

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What is the CNTi Testsuite ?
• Formerly the CNCF CNF
Testsuite
• Part of LF Networking’s Cloud
Native Telecom Initiative (CNTi)
• Tests Cloud Nativeness of
workloads
• Specializes in testing
telecommunication software

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CNTi Community

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What is a Cloud Native RAN?
• A RAN with its software components deployed
to Cloud native architecture which uses
immutable infrastructure, declarative
configuration, and microservices
• This is exemplified by putting the 5g core and
RAN into containers and hosting them in
Kubernetes.

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Why Should We Test O-RAN Interfaces?
• Cnti-Testsuite tests mostly horizontal
cloud native concerns for
telecommunications
• One of our biggest requests is to test
more telco specific traffic where possible
• Several communication service providers
have committed to supporting the O-RAN
standard
• Support vendor onboarding and
vendor interoperability with community
maintained tests

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Challenges With Testing Cloud Native O-RAN Interfaces
• The RAN is expensive to test
• In order to test mobile specific traffic,
we need a mobile specific harness
around telco components
• How do we identify what pods receive
specific types of traffic?
• How do we capture the network traffic
in K8s?

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What we tested: the O-RAN E2 interface
• ORAN E2 interface

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What Did We Use to Test?
• srsUE and srsRAN to generate the traffic
• srsRAN ZMQ emulator from UE to GNB
• FlexRIC for RIC framework
• Cnf-testsuite to parse the captured traffic
• Labels to identify the Xapp core components
• Tshark to capture the network traffic
• The e2ap filter
• ClusterTools To integrate Tshark with K8s

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How Do We Run The O-RAN Tests for the RAN?
• Install the 5g core
• ./cnf-testsuite cnf_setup cnf-config=sample-
cnfs/sample_srsran_ueauth_open5gs/cnf-
testsuite.yml
• Install the the RAN simulator with RIC
example
• ./cnf-testsuite cnf_setup cnf-config=sample-
cnfs/sample-oran-ric/cnf-testsuite.yml
• Run the RAN E2 verifier
• . /cnf-testsuite oran_e2_connection
• Inspect the output of the results.yml

16. Demo
Documentation: https://github.com/cncf/cnf-testsuite/blob/main/README.md
https://github.com/cncf/cnf-testsuite/blob/main/USAGE.md#ran-tests

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O-RAN Test Roadmap
• E1 (CU -> UP)
• E2 Handler (DU -> RIC)
• F1-C Control Plane (CU-CP -> DU)
• F1-U User Plane (CU-UP -> DU)
• FAPI+ (DU High -> DU Low)
• NG (CU -> 5g Core)
• O1 (Near RT-RIC -> SMO)
• A1 (Near RT-RIC -> Non-RT RIC

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Collaborate with Us
Contribute to the Test Catalog
● Weekly on Tuesdays (Next: May 7)
● https://github.com/cnti-testcatalog
● https://lists.lfnetworking.org/g/lfn-cnti
Austin Software Cooperatives Meetup
● Monthly (Next: May 8)
● bit.ly/coop-meetup
Contact Vulk
● vulk.coop/contact
Connect on Linkedin
● linkedin.com/in/wavell
Contribute to srsRAN Project
● github.com/srsran
Reach out and get the docs
● srsran.com
● docs.srsran.com
Connect on Linkedin and X
● srs.io
● linkedin.com/softwareradiosystems/

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Evolving Together: Cloud Native
Telecom's Journey Forward
May 1, 2024 | San Jose, CA
3:40pm - 4:10pm PT
W. Watson
Principal
Vulk Cooperative
Olivier Smith
Office of the CTO
MATRIXX Software

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Thank You!
Q&A