SwapRAN - How to Update Your 5G vRAN

This repository holds a reference implementation using the OpenAirInterface5G stack for the live update mechanism presented in the ACM MobiCom'25 paper, "How to Update Your 5G vRAN". The contents of this repository are also used for the demo presented in ACM MobiCom'25.

Links: [Conference Paper], [Demo Abstract], [Demo Poster].

Note: An earlier version of SwapRAN's demo was presented in the OAI Workshop 2025 (see branch oai-summer-workshop).

Overview

SwapRAN proposes techniques that enables the CU/DU update process to be performed seamlessly by reducing the downtimes due to updates, substantially.

For DU updates, the key lies in how to safely overlap the old DU and the new DU by interleaving the realtime (RT) components of the DU while sharing the same CPU set and fronthaul NIC. For details, please refer to the README under du_updates/.

Note: Pay attention the K8S lifecycle hooks, the use of libswapRAN.so in the start up command, and also the DU configurations.

As for CU updates, we decouple the stateful connection between the CU and DU, and using standard messages, i.e., F1 Resets, to gradually migrate DUs to use the new CU during updates. For details, please refer to the README under cu_updates/.

Note: Pay attention to the K8S lifecycle hooks, the use of the F1AP proxy, and also the CU configurations.

Citation

If you find this work useful, please cite the following:

@INPROCEEDINGS{2025-MOBICOM-SwapRAN,
  author={Xin Zhe Khooi and Anuj Kalia and Mun Choon Chan},
  booktitle={ACM MobiCom}, 
  title={{How to Update Your 5G vRAN}}, 
  year={2025}
}

License

The components introduced by SwapRAN, are licensed under the MIT license, which is included in this repository. The list of components are as follows:

• DU updates

  • K8s preStop hooks
  • libswapRAN.so
  • xRAN-patch

• CU updates

  • K8s postStart hooks
  • K8s preStop hooks
  • F1AP proxy

Unless otherwise specified, the helm charts included in this repo, which we use/modify to demonstrate SwapRAN, fall under the OAI Public License V1.1.

Contact

For any questions, or if you have any comments or feedback, there are two ways to reach out.

• File a GitHub issue under this repo.
• Drop an email to khooixz [at] comp [dot] nus [dot] edu [dot] sg.