NETWORK_CONSIDERATIONS.md

OpenAirInterface 5G Core Network when using any docker-compose-based deployment

OVERVIEW

This tutorial will help in understanding how to deploy an OAI Core Network and to connect a real RAN.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Pre-requisites
2. Network Considerations

1. Pre-requisites

The official OAI CN5G container images use Ubuntu 22.04 as the container base image. They are compatible with Ubuntu hosts 22.04 through 26.04, Fedora 39 through 43, and RHEL 8 through 10.

Any Docker or Podman version available for those host releases should be fine. The tutorials mostly show Docker commands; Podman users can replace docker with podman and use a Compose-compatible Podman command where needed.

Software	Requirement
Container runtime	Docker or Podman
Host operating system	Ubuntu 22.04-26.04, Fedora 39-43, or RHEL 8-10
Packet analysis	tshark and Wireshark are optional but recommended

1.1. Wireshark

The new version of wireshark may not be available in the ubuntu repository.

• So it is better to build it from source.

You may also use the developer PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wireshark-dev/stable
sudo apt update
sudo apt install wireshark

wireshark --version
Wireshark 3.4.7 (Git v3.4.7 packaged as 3.4.7-1~ubuntu18.04.0+wiresharkdevstable1)

2. Network Considerations

2.1. on the Core Network side

Most of the times the docker-compose-host machine is not configured with packet forwarding. It can be done using the command below (if you have already done it in any other section then don't repeat).

This is the most important step towards end-to-end connectivity.

(docker-compose-host)$ sudo sysctl net.ipv4.conf.all.forwarding=1
(docker-compose-host)$ sudo iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT

2.2. on the RAN side

We need to make the CN-5G containers visible from this host

(gnb-host)$ sudo ip route add 192.168.70.128/26 via IP_ADDR_NIC0 dev NIC1