PhantomNet provides the research community with the tools and infrastructure to explore current- and next-generation mobile networking technologies. Diverse resources, from mobile handsets to evolved packet core services to software-defined-radio devices, are available for composing end-to-end experiments. With PhantomNet, researchers can tap into the often-opaque standards-compliant mobility core, or introduce their own clean-slate designs to influence the future of mobile networking.
PhantomNet is a mobile networking testbed that provides researchers with a set of hardware and software resources that they can use to develop, debug, and evaluate their mobility ideas. Resources available in PhantomNet include evolved packet core (EPC) software (OpenEPC, OpenLTE and Open Air Interface), hardware access points (ip.access and SDR-based eNodeBs), mobile user equipment (Nexus 5 phones and SDR-based), and a large set of commodity bare metal nodes, virtual nodes and other resources inherited from the main Emulab infrastructure. PhantomNet hardware resources are connected to a programmatically controlled attenuator matrix to enable controlled radio access network (RAN) experimentation. In addition to raw resources, PhantomNet provides configuration directives and scripts to assist researchers in setting up their mobility experiments. Several example parameterized profiles are provided for immediate use, and users can copy and modify them as desired for their own work. PhantomNet automates many aspects of configuring the EPC software components to operate within the underlying Emulab infrastructure.
With PhantomNet, you can explore an EPC setup with emulated endpoints and access points. You can mix an EPC core software with real, off-the-shelf eNodeBs and UEs. The RAN is open for experimentation with software defined radios and software implementations such as Open Air Interface. Don't like the 3GPP EPC? Don't use it. PhantomNet let's you drop in your own clean-slate core components, and bridge off-the-shelf endpoints to it using OpenLTE.
Ready to get started with PhantomNet? You can sign up for an account and try out a simulated EPC backed by Open Air Interface. Or, after signing the OpenEPC sub-license agreement, you can run through the basic OpenEPC tutorial.
Most PhantomNet resources are available to any researchers and educators, free of charge. Resources associated with the OpenEPC software suite, however, are only available to US academic institutions (or to research institutions that have their own OpenEPC license).
To use PhantomNet resources, including our pre-configured mobile experiment profiles, simply sign up for a PhantomNet account. New projects should be created by principal investigators, i.e., typically university faculty, after which associated members, i.e., students, may join.
Access to the PhantomNet OpenEPC software suite, is available after submitting a signed sublicense agreement.
A number of features are already available and we are continually making more features and components available. We typically introduce new funtionality by providing pre-configured profiles and accompanying self-help tutorials to get users up and running quickly. (See our Wiki page for a listing of currently available profiles and tutorials.) Below we provide a brief overview of current PhantomNet status and plans.
If you are a PhantomNet user (or a potential PhantomNet user) and have specific ideas or requirements that would make the infrastructure more useful for your work, please let us know. We cannot promise to accomodate all requests, but in general try our best to enable our users.
We have general availability of the OpenEPC software suite, with select setup automation. This includes AAA, HSS, MME, SGW, PGW, PCRF, and emulated eNodeB and UE components.
PhantomNet is transitioning from its initial classic Emulab interface to a portal similar to that used by CloudLab and APT. This also means that the way experiments are specified and created has changed. Instead of NS files, experimenters can take advantage of "off-the-shelf" profiles, or supply their own geni-lib or RSpec files. We have a handful of parameterized profiles from the classic interface already available, and more on the way.
We are in the process of making the OpenLTE and OpenAirInterface open source stacks avaialble to our users. These stacks will specifically be useful in combination with our SDR hardware, but can also be used in software-only mode.
The core hardware build-out for PhantomNet is underway. This includes off-the-shelf mobile handsets and small-cell hardware, as well as SDR equipment. Rather than using an air interface, all mobile hardware devices are interconnecte via a programmable attenuator matrix to provide more controlled experimentation. See our hardware page for more information on what we are putting together.
We have good traction in the setup and management mechanisms for our mobility hardware, but there is still plenty left to do here. We are working on the tooling for setting up the attenuator matrix and for configuring mobile endpoints.
We are actively working to make basic S1 handovers functional with both our emulated RAN and hardware RAN components. This effort requires bug fixes and enhancements to the OpenEPC code base.
There are a number of enhancements for the EPC that we have on our todo list. Among them is scaling up the number of emulated UEs that the automation can set up. Another task is to make it easy for experimenters to split off or co-locate EPC functions (MME, PGW, etc.) on particular nodes.
Part of the PhantomNet design includes providing a toolkit for constructing mobile experiments. Our plan is to expose the configuration of EPC and other mobile components via geni-lib objects. Experimenters will be able to use these objects to express mobile configurations through higher level system-provided abstractions, right down to individual EPC function settings.
General questions or comments about PhantomNet should be directed to the PhantomNet Team
Specific questions regarding the use of the facility should be directed to the PhantomNet Google Group
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CNS-1305384. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
