Toward Lightweight Aerial 5G gNBs: Reproducible OAI Testbed on Commodity ARM Platforms

2026-10-04

AI Summary

This study addresses the payload and power constraints of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) base stations, which render traditional x86 architectures impractical for aerial deployment. We propose a lightweight airborne 5G distributed unit (DU) architecture based on commercial ARM platforms. By offloading the core network to the ground and deploying only the DU and radio frequency frontend on the UAV, end-to-end validation is achieved on platforms such as the Jetson Orin Nano. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach retains approximately 88% of downlink throughput while limiting total system weight to 657.4 grams and power consumption to 28 watts. Furthermore, incorporating a link adaptation algorithm increases the downlink rate from 23.4 to 99.4 Mbps and supports public warning broadcasts, effectively bridging the gap for lightweight aerial base stations in emergency scenarios.

Abstract

For a battery-powered UAV base station, every gram and watt devoted to RAN-compute competes with flight-duration margin. We therefore keep the 5G Core (5GC) and central unit (CU) on the ground and design the airborne unit around only the backhaul endpoint, distributed unit (DU), and radio. The key question is then a practical one: can widely available commodity ARM computers sustain a real radio OpenAirInterface (OAI) 5G DU with useful performance over heterogeneous F1? We answer it with Raspberry Pi~5 and Jetson Orin Nano as DUs, a USRP B210, a commercial handset, and Ethernet, Wi-Fi/GRE, and 5G/WireGuard backhaul. Jetson preserves 88.4% of x86 split-DU Ethernet DL throughput and 87.5-89.0% across all three bearers; 5G/WireGuard preserves 76.4-77.1% of each host's wired DL rate. The validated Jetson/B210/RM500Q-GL electronics weigh 657.4 g and draw about 28 W under sustained traffic (757.4 g with integration allowance). A controlled link adaptation intervention raises split DL from 23.4 to 99.4 Mb/s as the dominant Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) moves from 3 to 26. Finally, synchronized radio, F1-U, CPU, and UHD evidence narrows the remaining monolithic-split gap to split-path scheduling/timing behavior. Beyond performance, this capability serves the emergency-response use case that motivates the aerial cell: once deployed above an affected area, it can broadcast a PWS warning message. We release the OAI patch that carries the single-segment Write-Replace Warning over F1 from CU to DU, where SIB8 is scheduled to the handset. The public artifact makes the payload, performance, and emergency-broadcast baseline reproducible with laboratory-accessible hardware.

Problem

• UAV base station
• lightweight 5G gNB
• commodity ARM platforms
• OpenAirInterface
• distributed unit

Innovation

• Lightweight 5G gNB
• Commodity ARM platforms
• OpenAirInterface
• Split-DU architecture
• Public Warning System