English

A Fully Open-Source End-to-End Private 5G Network over Unlicensed Frequency Bands

Networking and Internet Architecture 2025-02-12 v2

Abstract

The fifth generation of mobile networks (5G) represents the latest development in mobile communications. It has been designed to support several types of data traffic and to meet more challenging performance requirements than ever before. These characteristics make 5G attractive for current but also novel public and private services. However, because of reasons related to coverage, regulatory restrictions, business considerations, and cyber security, many of these novel applications can only be deployed as part of a private network. The cost of licensed frequencies makes such approach prohibitive for many stakeholders, and therefore unlicensed frequency bands represent a more affordable option. Even so, private 5G networks for use in globally unlicensed frequency bands do not yet exist. In this paper we present the first end-to-end private 5G network operating in a globally unlicensed frequency band, using general purpose computers, open-source software and software-defined radio. We evidence its working and show that the choice of the hardware can significantly affect the performance of the network.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2407.20652,
  title  = {A Fully Open-Source End-to-End Private 5G Network over Unlicensed Frequency Bands},
  author = {Faycal Bouhafs and Sayed Amir Hoseini and Syed Danial Ali Shah and Frank den Hartog},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.20652},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

arXiv admin note: This version has been removed by arXiv administrators as the submitter did not have the right to agree to the license at the time of submission

R2 v1 2026-06-28T17:57:53.518Z