5G Lab as a Service (Laas) Simulator Deployment: Study Case Scenarios in Indonesian Higher Education

The 5G system is currently undergoing development and enhancement to offer unparalleled connectivity, connecting everyone and everything, anywhere. The potential use cases of 5G technology illustrate its ability to revolutionize various industries, including education. To keep up with the latest technological advancements in higher education, the implementation of a 5G Lab as a Service (LaaS) is necessary to simulate real network experiences. Software-defined and cloud computing technologies play crucial roles in this generation, where virtualization, modularity, and abstraction have gained popularity. This paper focuses on selecting the appropriate software among free5gc, magma, and open5gs for the implementation of a 5G lab. The using Virtual Private Servers (VPS), which allow virtual resources to be accessed and managed from anywhere in the world. The open- source software solution, free5gc, is deemed the most suitable for serving as LaaS in a higher education laboratory. LaaS provides the capabilities to deploy simulations and use case scenarios, encompassing the configuration, connection, and troubleshooting of 5G infrastructure end-to-end, ranging from radio access networks to core networks and transport networks.