Performance Profiling of Cloud Radio Access Networks using OpenAirInterface

NGFI, the Next Generation Fronthaul Interface, is a promising fronthaul interface for the C-RAN (Cloud Radio Access Network). NGFI is used to connect RCC (Radio Cloud Center) and RRS (Radio Remote System) in order to avoid the drawbacks of traditional CPRI (Common Public Radio Interface). In this paper we investigate the NGFI-based C-RAN. We use the OpenAirInterface (OAI) open source 4G/5G mobile communication software and GPP (general purpose processor) based servers and personal computers to build an OAI C-RAN testbed. We also use the source codes of OAI to run the performance profiling on this OAI C-RAN testbed to understand the behavior of this testbed. The purpose of this paper is to build the comprehensive performance profiling methods and results on the OAI C-RAN system, and to use these results to help designing and optimizing the OAI C-RAN system. Based on the results, we could decide which part of the system software to optimize to improve the system speed and the efficiency of memory usage.