5G SA NETWORK FOR DRONE SWARM APPLICATIONS: PRELIMINARY DEPLOYMENT AND TESTING

Teodor GIURGICĂ, Annamaria SÂRBU, Kevin TEBBE, Gerd SCHOLL

Abstract


This work presents the design, implementation and experimental validation of an end-to-end 5G Standalone (5G SA) network based on containerized deployment of open-source technologies. The development process started from a virtualized environment and migrated towards a Docker-based architecture for both the 5G core and next generation node B (gNB).

The 5G Core and gNB were integrated and validated using customized user equipment (UE), enabling realistic testing of registration procedures, packet data unit (PDU) session establishment, and user-plane data transfer. In the final stage, the system was extended to a hardware-based implementation using a software-defined radio (SDR) platform, enabling over-the-air (OTA) pre-validation of the transmitted 5G New Radio (NR) signal. Experimental results confirm 5G SA attachment, stable data transfer and compliant radio emission behavior within the n78 band.


Full Text:

PDF

References


Asaamoning, G., Mendes, P., Rosário, D., and Cerqueira, E., Drone Swarms as Networked Control Systems by Integration of Networking and Computing, Sensors, vol. 21, no. 8, 2021. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21082642

Chen, X., Tang, J., and Lao, S., Review of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Swarm Communication Architectures and Routing Protocols, Applied Sciences, vol. 10, no. 10, 2020. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10103661

Banafaa, M., Pepeoğlu, Ö., Shayea, I., Alhammadi, A., Shamsan, Z., Razaz, M., Alsagabi, M., & Al-Sowayan, S. (2024). A Comprehensive Survey on 5G-and-Beyond Networks With UAVs: Applications, Emerging Technologies, Regulatory Aspects, Research Trends and Challenges. IEEE Access, 12, 7786-7826. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2023.3349208

Zaivyi, R., Melnychok, O., & Skochelias, V. (2025). Data Transmission Between a Drone Swarm and a Ground Base: Modern Methods and Technologies - A Narrative Review. Premier Journal of Science. https://doi.org/10.70389/pjs.100116.

Oliva, A., Costa, X., Azcorra, A., Giglio, A., Cavaliere, F., Tiegelbekkers, D., Lessmann, J., Haustein, T., Mourad, A., & Iovanna, P. (2015). Xhaul: Toward Integrated Fronthaul/Backhaul Architecture in 5G Networks. IEEE Wireless Communications, 22, 32-40. https://doi.org/10.1109/mwc.2015.7306535.

3GPP TS 23.501, System Architecture for the 5G System (5GS); Stage 2, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)

Zhang, C., Wen, X., Wang, L., Lu, Z., & , L. (2018). Performance Evaluation of Candidate Protocol Stack for Service-Based Interfaces in 5G Core Network. 2018 IEEE International Conference on Communications Workshops (ICC Workshops),1-6. https://doi.org/10.1109/iccw.2018.8403675

Shariat, M., Bulakci, Ö., Domenico, A., Mannweiler, C., Gramaglia, M., Wei, Q., Aravinthan, G., Pateromichelakis, E., Moggio, F., Tsolkas, D., Gajić, B., Crippa, M., & Khatibi, S. (2019). A Flexible Network Architecture for 5G Systems. Wirel. Commun. Mob. Comput., 2019, 5264012:1-5264012:19. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/5264012.

Hoa, L., Dang, T., & Vo, V. (2025). An integrated model of threshold-based scaling and fractional admission controlling to improve resource utilization efficiency in 5G core networks. PLOS One, 20. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0330072.

Pizzinat, A., Chanclou, P., Saliou, F., & Diallo, T. (2015). Things You Should Know About Fronthaul. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 33, 1077-1083. https://doi.org/10.1109/jlt.2014.2382872.

Rudolph, H., Kunz, A., Iacono, L., & Nguyen, H. (2019). Security Challenges of the 3GPP 5G Service Based Architecture. IEEE Communications Standards Magazine, 3,60-65. https://doi.org/10.1109/mcomstd.2019.1800034.

Da Silva Coelho, W., Benhamiche, A., Perrot, N., & Secci, S. (2020). Network Function Mapping: From 3G Entities to 5G Service-Based Functions Decomposition. IEEE Communications Standards Magazine, 4,46-52. https://doi.org/10.1109/mcomstd.001.1900040.

Bitsikas, E., Khandker, S., Salous, A., Ranganathan, A., Jover, R., & Pöpper, C. (2023). UE Security Reloaded: Developing a 5G Standalone User-Side Security Testing Framework. Proceedings of the 16th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks. https://doi.org/10.1145/3558482.3590194.

Jover, R., & Marojevic, V. (2018). Security and Protocol Exploit Analysis of the 5G Specifications. IEEE Access, 7, 24956-24963. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2899254

Aydin, Y., Kurt, G., Ozdemir, E., & Yanikomeroglu, H. (2022). Authentication and Handover Challenges and Methods for Drone Swarms. IEEE Journal of Radio Frequency Identification, 6, 220-228. https://doi.org/10.1109/jrfid.2022.3158392.

Bellin, A., Centenaro, M., & Granelli, F. (2023). A Preliminary Study on the Power Consumption of Virtualized Edge 5G Core Networks. 2023 IEEE 9th International Conference on Network Softwarization (NetSoft),420-425. https://doi.org/10.1109/netsoft57336.2023.10175489.

Zahoor, S., Ahmad, I., Rehman, A., Eldin, E., Ghamry, N., & Shafiq, M. (2023). Performance Evaluation of Virtualization Methodologies to Facilitate NFV Deployment. Computers, Materials & Continua. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2023.035960.

Luong, D., Thieu, H., Outtagarts, A., & Ghamri-Doudane, Y. (2018). Cloudification and Autoscaling Orchestration for Container-Based Mobile Networks toward 5G: Experimentation, Challenges and Perspectives. 2018 IEEE 87th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC Spring), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1109/vtcspring.2018.8417602.

H. Beuster, K. Tebbe, T. R. Doebbert, and G. Scholl, Measurements of the Safety Function Response Time on a Private 5G and IO-Link Wireless Testbed, 2024 IEEE 29th International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA). IEEE, pp. 1–4, Sep. 10, 2024. doi: 10.1109/etfa61755.2024.10710762.

Barrachina-Muñoz, S., Payaró, M., & Mangues-Bafalluy, J. (2022). Cloud-native 5G experimental platform with over-the-air transmissions and end-to-end monitoring. 2022 13th International Symposium on Communication Systems, Networks and Digital Signal Processing (CSNDSP), 692-697. https://doi.org/10.1109/csndsp54353.2022.9908028.

Tripathi, A., Bashar, F., Chowdhury, M., Da Silva, A., & Midkiff, S. (2025). Benchmarking Software Defined Radio Based 5G Deployments With srsRAN: Lessons Learned. 2025 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1109/wcnc61545.2025.10978285.

Bikkasani, D. (2025). SIM Provisioning in 5G and IoT: Securing Mobile Connectivity for the Future. International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR). https://doi.org/10.21275/sr25123092902.

Kiela, K., Jurgo, M., Macaitis, V., & Navickas, R. (2021). 5G Standalone and 4G Multi-Carrier Network-in-a-Box Using a Software Defined Radio Framework. Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 21. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21165653.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


JOURNAL INDEXED IN :