Making Installation of OpenAirInterface (OAI) easier using Network Namespaces

The OpenAirInterface(OAI) is an open-source software implementation of 4th generation mobile cellular system. It emulates the core network of telecommunication, access network and user equipment of 3GPP cellular networks. Installation of OpenAirInterface is a tedious task as a number of steps need to be manually done for the configuration process. This makes it very difficult to use the software. With this project, we aim to make it easier to install the OAI for users on different Linux distros. We have implemented the entire OAI stack using Linux network namespaces. Thus, each OAI component runs in a separate, isolated network namespace, on a single physical machine, as against two machines required earlier. Network namespaces are a cheap and efficient way of virtualizing the network as against using Virtual Machines. In this way, time and efforts of the first time users/contributors of OAI in setting it up on their own machine is reduced, enhancing their research capability.