5G Testbed Development for Network Slicing Evaluation

5G networks supposed to be a solution for providing the ubiquity connectivity of wireless devices. Network slicing is one of the major enablers of 5G networks. Network slice is a logical network with specific network and security capabilities. To provide a tool for a research study of network slicing, the 5G testbed is being developed. The testbed utilizes the LTE architecture and adds 5G elements to LTE testbed by OpenAirInterface. UE and AN are simulated with help of OAI Simulator. Core Network presented by openair-cn. To enable slice selection function, a UE contains NSSAI. eNB extracts NSSAI which is used for slice selection and relays NSSAI to AMF/MME for further processing. Network slices presented as Docker containers. The 5G testbed allows to study performance issues and attacks on network slices from different angles e.g. protocol, slice selection function in AN, processing NSSAI in core networks.