Introduction to 5G core network testing

Test Agent Applications are capable of connecting to a 5G core network and running tests and monitors to measure the performance of that network.

The tests and monitors can make use of any task types supported by Test Agent Applications (see the above table), while connecting to the 5G core network is done by means of emulating a UE and a gNodeB (in this dialog) and setting up a tun (tunnel) interface for data transmission. In addition, a control channel is set up towards the 5G core AMF. When configuring a test or monitor, you select the tun interface in the configuration dialog.

You can set up multiple gNodeB-and-UE pairs and reconfigure the tunnel interface for any of these pairs using the RAN switcher task.

When you run the RAN switcher, a set of 5G-specific KPIs are computed and displayed.

This feature is currently not available on Test Agent Appliances.

Limitations

The 5G core network testing feature currently has the following limitations:

  • The tunnel interface names cannot be configured; they will always be in the format uesimtun<n>, where <n> starts at zero.

  • The tunnel interface MTU is fixed at 1400 bytes.

  • Only one gNodeB is supported. The number of UEs is limited by system capabilities.

  • The open-source software used to emulate UEs and a gNodeB does not support namespaces. This will cause issues if the interface connecting back to the 5G core is in a different namespace from the emulated tunnel interface. The “namespace aware” option in the Test Agent CLI, mentioned here, cannot be used if the 5G core network testing feature is enabled in the CLI.

  • Some KPIs are not available. For details, see this page.

  • The KPI resolution is limited to milliseconds.

  • IPv6 is not supported.

  • At least 2 vCPUs are required for a Test Agent Application with the 5G feature enabled. A single vCPU is not sufficient.