openairinterface5g/doc/BUILD.md

OAI Build Procedures

This page is valid on tags starting from 2019.w09.

Soft Modem Build Script

The OAI EPC is developed in a distinct project with it's own documentation , it is not described here.

OAI softmodem sources, which aim to implement 3GPP compliant UEs, eNodeB and gNodeB can be downloaded from the Eurecom gitlab repository.

Sources come with a build script build_oai located at the root of the openairinterface5g/cmake_targets directory. This script is developed to build the oai binaries (executables,shared libraries) for different hardware platforms, and use cases.

The main oai binaries, which are tested by the Continuous Integration process are:

• The LTE UE: lte-uesoftmodem
• The 5G UE: nr-uesoftmodem
• The LTE eNodeB: lte-softmodem
• The 5G gNodeB: nr-softmodem
• The LTE PHY simulators: dlsim and ulsim
• The 5G PHY simulators: nr_dlschsim nr_dlsim nr_pbchsim nr_pucchsim nr_ulschsim nr_ulsim polartest smallblocktest ulsim ldpctest

Running the build_oai script also generates some utilities required to build and/or run the oai softmodem binaries:

• conf2uedata: a binary used to build the UE data from a configuration file. The created file emulates the sim card of a 3GPP compliant phone.
• nvram: a binary used to build UE (IMEI...) and EMM (IMSI, registered PLMN) non volatile data.
• rb_tool: radio bearer utility
• genids T Tracer utility, used at build time to generate T_IDs.h include file. This binary is located in the T Tracer source file directory .

The build system for OAI uses cmake which is a tool to generate makefiles. The build_oai script is a wrapper using cmake, make and standard linux shell commands to ease the oai build and use . The file describing how to build the executables from source files is the CMakeLists.txt, it is used as input by cmake to generate the makefiles.

The oai softmodem supports many use cases, and new ones are regularly added. Most of them are accessible using the configuration file or the command line options and continuous effort is done to avoid introducing build options as it makes tests and usage more complicated than run-time options. The following functionalities, originally requiring a specific build are now accessible by configuration or command line options:

• s1, noS1
• all simulators as the rfsimulator, the L2 simulator, with exception of PHY simulators, which are distinct executables.

Calling the build_oai script with the -h option gives the list of all available options, but a process to simplify and check the requirements of all these options is on-going. Check the table At the end of this page to know the status of buid_oai options which are not described hereafter.

Building PHY Simulators

The PHY layer simulators (LTE and NR) can be built as follows:

cd <your oai installation directory>/openairinterface5g/
source oaienv
cd cmake_targets/
./build_oai -I --phy_simulators

After completing the build, the binaries are available in the cmake_targets/ran_build/build directory.

Detailed information about these simulators can be found in this dedicated page

Building UEs, eNodeB and gNodeB Executables

After downloading the source files, a single build command can be used to get the binaries supporting all the oai softmodem use cases (UE and [eg]NodeB):

cd <your oai installation directory>/openairinterface5g/
source oaienv
cd cmake_targets/
./build_oai -I -w USRP --eNB --UE --nrUE --gNB

• The -I option is to install pre-requisites, you only need it the first time you build the softmodem or when some oai dependencies have changed.
• The -w option is to select the radio head support you want to include in your build. Radio head support is provided via a shared library, which is called the "oai device" The build script creates a soft link from liboai_device.so to the true device which will be used at run-time (here the USRP one,liboai_usrpdevif.so . USRP is the only hardware tested today in the Continuous Integration process. The RF simulatorRF simulator is implemented as a specific device replacing RF hardware, it can be specifically built using -w SIMU option, but is also built during any softmodem build.
• --eNB is to build the lte-softmodem executable and all required shared libraries
• --gNB is to build the nr-softmodem executable and all required shared libraries
• --UE is to build the lte-uesoftmodem executable and all required shared libraries
• --nrUE is to build the nr-uesoftmodem executable and all required shared libraries

You can build any oai softmodem executable separately, you may not need all of them depending on your oai usage.

After completing the build, the binaries are available in the cmake_targets/ran_build/build directory.

Installing UHD from source

Previously for Ubuntu distributions, when installing the pre-requisites, most of the packages are installed from PPA.

Especially the UHD driver, but you could not easily manage the version of libuhd that will be installed.

Now, when installing the pre-requisites, especially the UHD driver, you can now specify if you want to install from source or not.

• For fedora-based OS, it was already the case all the time. But now you can specify which version to install.
• For ubuntu OS, you can still install from the Ettus PPA or select a version to install from source.
  • In case of PPA installation, you do nothing special, the script will install the latest version available on the PPA.
    • ./build_oai -I -w USRP
  • In case of a installation from source, you do as followed:

export BUILD_UHD_FROM_SOURCE=True
export UHD_VERSION=3.15.0.0
./build_oai -I -w USRP

The UHD_VERSION env variable SHALL be a valid tag (minus v) from the https://github.com/EttusResearch/uhd.git repository.

CAUTION: Note that if you are using the OAI eNB in TDD mode with B2xx boards, a patch is mandatory.

Starting this commit, the patch is applied automatically in our automated builds.

See:

• cmake_targets/tools/uhd-3.15-tdd-patch.diff
• cmake_targets/tools/uhd-4.x-tdd-patch.diff
• cmake_targets/tools/build_helper --> function install_usrp_uhd_driver_from_source

Building Optional Binaries

Telnet Server

The telnet server can be built with the --build-lib telnetsrv option, after building the softmodem or while building it.

./build_oai -I -w USRP --eNB --UE --build-lib telnetsrv

or

./build_oai --build-lib telnetsrv

You can get documentation about the telnet server here

Other optional libraries

Using the help option of the build script you can get the list of available optional libraries. Those which haven't been mentioned above are known to need more tests and documentation.

./build_oai --build-lib all will build all available optional libraries.

build_oai options

Please run ./build_oai -h to get a list of available options.

oai wiki home

oai softmodem features

running the oai softmodem