NetSoft2020-Tutorial4-Demo3-Exp1

Expected result

This experiment aims to demonstrate a RAN based on LTE technology with integrated with a LoRa wireless network implemented in hardware (non-3GPP Network). For RAN LTE, we use open-source software and an SDR. We also use an open-source implementation of the SBA-based 5G core software, as illustrated by the following image.

Installation

Requirements

The minimum hardware requirement and software to run this experiment is shown in the image below.

Sensor LoRa
Mini Gateway LoRa
Smartphone Android
SIM card (writable)
USRP B210
Mini PC (RAM: 4GB and disk space: 40GB)
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Docker 18.09.7
srsLTE release 19_12
free5GC stage 1
ChirpStack
LoRaWAN Gateway
LoRaWAN Node

Steps

We need two tools to run this experiment, Git and Docker

To install Git, run the following command:

sudo apt-get install git-all

To install Docker, run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

After, we can clone the NetSoft2020-Tutorial4-Demo3-Exp1 project:

git clone https://github.com/LABORA-INF-UFG/NetSoft2020-Tutorial4-Demo3-Exp1.git

To build the eNB and all 5GC images, use the following command:

sudo docker build -t netsoft2020tutorial4demo3exp1 .

To run the containers, use the following command:

sudo docker-compose up -d

To build the LoRaWAN imagens, we use a Virtal Machine in the cloud and the following the commands:

git clone https://github.com/LABORA-INF-UFG/NetSoft2020-Tutorial4-Demo3-Exp1.git

cd  NetSoft2020-Tutorial4-Demo3-Exp1/LoRaWAN

sudo docker-compose up -d

Done! The software is successfully installed.

Tests

We can check if the images are up:

sudo docker image ls

The output should be similar to the following:

We can check if the containers are up:

sudo docker-compose ps

The output should be similar to the following:

The first step of the experiment is to store in HSS the UE's information using the Web Interface of the free5GC project that is available at http://localhost:3000, as is shown in the image below.

We can see the smartphone connected in the network called free5GC available.

We use the PingTools Network Utilities tool available at GooglePlay to test the connectivity of the network.

We connect the smartphone to the gateway via USB. This smartphone is placed in USB Tethering mode to make the connection via the cellular network.

Finally, we have the network configured.

We can see the data received from the sensor in the LoRaWAN application server.

Additional comments

Two steps are needed when adding a gateway LoRa.

To configure the gateway that it sends data to the ChirpStack Gateway Bridge component. In the packet-forwarder configuration, modify the following configuration keys:

server_address to the IP address / hostname of the ChirpStack Gateway Bridge
serv_port_up to 1700 (the default port that ChirpStack Gateway Bridge is using)
serv_port_down to 1700 (same)

More details on installing the gateway with the Raspberry Pi in the product manual.

To add the LoRa gateway to the ChirpStack Server network. For this, access the ChirpStack Application Server web-interface (http://IP:8080) and add the gateway with the following steps.