tinyLTE

tinyLTE is a low cost, lightweight autonomous LTE network, building upon virtualization techniques and open source software stacks. It is a pragmatic approach for building standalone LTE cells with off the shelf software defined radio (SDR) hardware.

The following software is virtualized:

• srsLTE by SRS
• corenet by Benoit Michau

There are two types of containers: one for infrastructure (op) and one for network clients (ue). Infrastructure containers deploy a base station backed by a local core network (eNB + EPC), while clients act as LTE user devices (UE). A host can be both infrastructure and client at the same time if it has access to two SDRs. The setup has been developed and tested with USRP B210 SDRs.

Getting started

Install Docker and docker-compose. Make sure your installed version of docker-compose is >1.13.0.

Run

Change either into tinyLTE-op or tinyLTE-ue directory, then start it with:

docker-compose up

NOTE: If your user is not a member of the docker group this command must be run with sudo.

To enable the overlay network on the host machine run:

Stationary tinyLTE node:

sudo python3 configure_host.py corenet_tun_conf

UE node:

sudo python3 configure_host.py corenet_tun_conf_ue

Configuration

tinyLTE opens point-to-point tunnels between eNBs and UEs. The tunnel endpoints are identified with virtual IP-addresses in an overlay network.

UE IP-Assignment

UEs get IP addresses assigned by corenet. Mapping of IPs is defined in corenet_conf.py. They are assigned from 172.19.100.100 upwards.

Overlay network

Each node in the overlay network is identified by a virtual IP. It relates to its corenet-assigned IP by replacing the third byte by 200. So 172.19.100.101 maps to 172.19.200.101. The stationary tinyLTE node that is directly connected to the internet, has 172.19.200.1. Tunnels connect nodes in the 172.19.200.0/24 network via GTP. The dummy interface representing the tunnel endpoint at the stationary tinyLTE node has IP 172.19.100.1. The IP adresses of the network overlay can be customized within the corenet_tun_conf files.

• GTPFake sets routing within the corenet container
• configure_host.py creates tunnels/routing on host machine

Cite as

• tinyLTE: Lightweight, Ad Hoc Deployable Cellular Network for Vehicular Communication IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC-Spring)