OpenAirInterface (OAI) Remote Control Manager (RCM) is an innovative management platform which is designed and developed to enable remote and centralized configuration, operation and management of any OAI node in a flexible and adaptive way. The platform is developed to automatically generate the different configuration files for various customized test scenarios. Then it validates consistency between different related configuration parameters for different OAI nodes, and automatically operates these configurations and test scenarios with an unambiguous Graphical User Interface (GUI) for researchers.
OAI supports different implementations in which Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) User Equipment (UE) can be connected to OAI eNB operates with typical Evolved Packet Core (EPC) using S1 interface. Also OAI UE can be implemented to connect with OAI eNB that operates on a standalone basis without S1 interface. Moreover, the OAI platform can be used to build a full architecture for Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) which includes baseband processing unit and multi Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). For this, OAI is considered one of the common platforms that are used to implement 4G/5G testbeds for several research works. However, it lacks ease of configurations, and it is hard to match different configuration parameters, especially in large scale and complicated testbeds that contain many nodes such as OAI eNB, Radio Cloud Center (RCC), and Radio Remote Unit (RRU).
The next figure shows the OAI-RCM platform architecture which consists of a number of Ubuntu hosts acting as slaves, in which each host represents a specific OAI component, where the related configuration files should be consistent, such that a successful OAI operation is obtained. The platform which is running on the master host will generate such validated and matched configuration files and as a result the required test scenario is achieved in a more proper and faster way. OAI-RCM platform is developed with the capability to build the configuration files of various OAI nodes such as Evolved Node B (eNB), RRU, RCC, Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Serving and Packet Gateways (S/P-GW), HSS freeDiameter (FD), and MME FD. While configuring the testbed, researchers may need to remember the definition of specific configuration parameter, format, unit, or acceptable values, so OAI-RCM platform is designed to offer tips to decide on the right value for each parameter.
To set up a test scenario, OAI-RCM platform has a simple GUI accessed by the researcher. First the researcher can choose the nodes which are required in the desired test scenario. The default configuration parameters of these nodes are generated automatically by the OAI-RCM platform in which the researcher can alter these parameters using the developed GUI. The OAI-RCM platform validates the consistency of the chosen configuration parameters within each OAI node, and between related OAI nodes according to the dependency between OAI nodes configuration files as shown in the next figure.
Then, the platform writes these configuration files on OAI nodes and acknowledges the success configurations of the nodes by sending a review to the researcher to be checked. After the researcher reviews the test scenario and the generated configurations through the platform, the researcher operates the test scenario, and manages the results. The next figure briefly shows this process.
