Deployment Phases¶

The testbed is deployed in multiple sequential phases, each building on the previous.

Phase Overview¶

Phases fall into three classes. Core phases always run. Optional phases are addons not required for a working core. Some Core phases are edge-conditional (behavior depends on edge_enabled). See status.md for the core versus optional split.

Phase	Name	Class	Description
1	Infrastructure	Core	System packages, Open vSwitch
2	Kubernetes	Core	K3s cluster
3	KubeEdge	Core (edge-conditional)	CloudCore always; EdgeCore when `edge_enabled`
4	Overlay Network	Core (edge-conditional)	Multus, OVS bridges, VXLAN tunnels
5	5G Core	Core	Open5GS network functions, MongoDB
6	UERANSIM & MEC	Optional (`DEPLOY_MODE=full`)	Simulated gNB and UE
7	Observability	Core	Prometheus, Loki, Grafana
8	IAM	Core	Keycloak realm and PostgreSQL
9	Dashboard	Core	Out-of-band FastAPI + React control plane
10	CAMARA Gateway	Optional addon	CAMARA Location API gateway
11	Positioning Engine	Optional addon	Positioning engine with pluggable adapters
12	Positioning Demo	Optional addon	Positioning demo SPA

Optional addons are off by default (opt-in). Phase 6 (UERANSIM) is gated by ueransim_enabled, set automatically by DEPLOY_MODE=full or by testbed run-phase 06-ueransim-mec. Phases 10-12 are gated by camara_enabled / positioning_enabled / positioning_demo_enabled in all.yml. See gaps.md for the remaining CAMARA/positioning rework.

Running Phases¶

Provisioning Flags (`vagrant up`)¶

Flag	Values	Default	Behavior
`DEPLOY_MODE`	`core_only`, `full`	`core_only`	`core_only`: all phases except 6; `full`: also phase 6 (UERANSIM + MEC)
`TESTBED_PROFILE`	`laptop`, `server`	`laptop`	`server` creates 3 VMs with optimized resources; `laptop` creates 4 VMs including edge
`EDGE_ENABLED`	`true`, `false`	`true` (laptop) / `false` (server)	Controls edge VM creation and all edge-related Ansible tasks

These flags can be set via environment variables or managed with testbed-config. See Server / NUC Deployment for server-specific guidance.

Examples:

# Core only
vagrant up

# Full stack with UERANSIM
DEPLOY_MODE=full vagrant up

Full Deployment¶

# Runs all phases
DEPLOY_MODE=full vagrant up

Core Only (Default)¶

# Runs all phases except 6 (UERANSIM)
DEPLOY_MODE=core_only vagrant up

Specific Phases¶

vagrant ssh ansible
cd ~/ansible-ro

# Run specific phase
ansible-playbook phases/02-kubernetes/playbook.yml

# Run phases with tags
ansible-playbook phases/00-main-playbook.yml --tags phase4,phase5

Phase 1: Infrastructure¶

Location: ansible/phases/01-infrastructure/

What it does¶

Installs system packages (curl, wget, jq, etc.)
Installs and configures Open vSwitch
Configures kernel parameters (IP forwarding, etc.)
Sets up systemd-networkd

Key files¶

roles/infra_setup/tasks/main.yml
roles/infra_setup/templates/ovs-system.conf.j2

Verify¶

vagrant ssh worker
sudo ovs-vsctl --version

Phase 2: Kubernetes¶

Location: ansible/phases/02-kubernetes/

What it does¶

Deploys K3s server on master node
Deploys K3s agents on worker and edge nodes
Configures kubeconfig
Verifies cluster health

Key files¶

roles/k3s_master/tasks/main.yml
roles/k3s_agent/tasks/main.yml

Verify¶

vagrant ssh master
sudo k3s kubectl get nodes

Phase 3: KubeEdge¶

Location: ansible/phases/03-kubeedge/

Edge-conditional: EdgeCore deployment and edge node verification are skipped when edge_enabled=false (server profile without edge). CloudCore on the worker is always deployed.

What it does¶

Deploys CloudCore on worker node
Deploys EdgeCore on edge node (when edge enabled)
Configures edge-cloud communication (WebSocket port 10000)
Labels edge node

Key files¶

roles/kubeedge_cloudcore/tasks/main.yml
roles/kubeedge_edgecore/tasks/main.yml

Verify¶

sudo k3s kubectl get nodes
# Edge node should show: agent,edge roles

Phase 4: Overlay Network¶

Location: ansible/phases/04-overlay-network/

Edge-conditional: When edge_enabled=false, OVS bridges are created locally on the worker without VXLAN tunnels. Multus NADs and the OVS CNI still function for pods running on the worker. Edge-specific DaemonSets and Multus configuration are skipped.

What it does¶

Installs CNI binaries
Deploys Multus CNI DaemonSets
Creates OVS bridges (br-n1, br-n2, br-n3, br-n4, br-n6e, br-n6c, br-n6m)
Establishes VXLAN tunnels between worker and edge (when edge enabled)
Creates NetworkAttachmentDefinitions (NADs), including n6m-net in the mec namespace for MEC services
Creates per-cell networks

Key files¶

roles/ovs_network_setup/tasks/main.yml
roles/multus_install/tasks/main.yml
roles/cell_network_setup/tasks/main.yml
scripts/ovs-setup.sh

Verify¶

# Check OVS bridges
vagrant ssh worker
sudo ovs-vsctl show

# Check NADs
sudo k3s kubectl get net-attach-def -A

Phase 5: 5G Core¶

Location: ansible/phases/05-5g-core/

What it does¶

Creates 5g namespace
Deploys MongoDB
Deploys Open5GS Network Functions:
NRF (NF Repository Function)
AMF (Access and Mobility Management)
SMF (Session Management Function)
UPF (User Plane Function) - cloud and edge
UDM, UDR, AUSF, PCF, BSF, NSSF
Imports subscriber data
Validates NF connectivity

Key files¶

roles/infrastructure_setup/tasks/main.yml
roles/nf_deployments/tasks/main.yml
roles/subscriber_import/tasks/main.yml
configs/*.yaml - NF configurations

Verify¶

sudo k3s kubectl get pods -n 5g
sudo k3s kubectl logs -n 5g deploy/amf -c amf --tail=20

Phase 6: UERANSIM¶

Location: ansible/phases/06-ueransim-mec/

Optional. Runs only with DEPLOY_MODE=full.

What it does¶

Creates discovery token for edge pods
Deploys gNB (base station simulator)
Deploys UE (user equipment simulator)
Configures dynamic IP discovery via init containers
Optionally deploys MEC applications

Key files¶

roles/infrastructure_setup/tasks/main.yml - Discovery token
roles/gnb_deployment/tasks/main.yml
roles/ue_deployment/tasks/main.yml
vars/topology.yml - Cell and UE configuration

Topology Configuration¶

# vars/topology.yml
ueransim_topology:
  cells:
    - id: 1
      gnb:
        name: "gnb-1"
        node: "edge"
        nci: "0x000000010"
        tac: 1
      ues:
        - { id: 1, supi_suffix: "895", apn: "internet" }
        - { id: 2, supi_suffix: "896", apn: "internet" }

Verify¶

# Check gNB
sudo k3s kubectl get pods -n 5g -l app=gnb-1

# Check UEs
sudo k3s kubectl get pods -n 5g -l app=ue

# Check AMF logs for registrations
sudo k3s kubectl logs -n 5g deploy/amf -c amf | grep -i "registered"

Phase 7: Observability Stack¶

Purpose: Deploy monitoring and logging infrastructure.

Components:

Prometheus (metrics collection)
Loki (log aggregation)
Grafana (visualization)
Node Exporter (node metrics)
Promtail (log shipping)
Traffic Capture (optional, PCAP)

Deploy¶

vagrant ssh ansible
cd ~/ansible-ro

# Deploy observability stack
ansible-playbook phases/07-observability/playbook.yml

# With traffic capture enabled
ansible-playbook phases/07-observability/playbook.yml -e deploy_traffic_capture=true

Access¶

Service	URL	Credentials
Grafana	http://192.168.56.11:30300	admin / admin5g
Prometheus	http://192.168.56.11:30090	-

Pre-built Dashboards¶

Cluster Overview - Node health, resource usage
5G Core - NF status, logs, metrics

Verify¶

# Check pods
sudo k3s kubectl get pods -n monitoring

# Check Grafana
curl http://192.168.56.11:30300/api/health

Phase 8: IAM (Keycloak)¶

Location: ansible/phases/08-iam/

What it does¶

Deploys Keycloak and its PostgreSQL backend
Creates the 5g-testbed realm with the dashboard and CAMARA OIDC clients
Defines the role model (dashboard-admin, dashboard-viewer, camara-location-read)
Seeds two end users (admin, viewer) with temporary passwords
Realm reconcile behavior is gated (ask / on / off) via testbed iam reconcile

Verify¶

sudo k3s kubectl get pods -n iam

See security/iam.md for the realm structure and role matrix.

Phase 9: Dashboard Control Plane¶

Purpose: Prepare an out-of-band dashboard on the ansible VM without impacting namespace 5g runtime.

Deploy / Reconcile¶

vagrant ssh ansible
cd ~/ansible-ro

# Prepare dashboard workspace and dependencies
ansible-playbook phases/09-dashboard/playbook.yml

Development mode (live reload)¶

vagrant ssh ansible
cd ~/ansible-ro
ansible-playbook phases/09-dashboard/playbook.yml -e dashboard_mode=dev

What it does¶

In prod mode, synchronizes dashboard/ into writable /home/vagrant/dashboard-work
Installs backend and frontend dependencies
Builds frontend bundle with backend API URL
Creates and starts systemd services on ansible VM
Keeps dashboard outside 5g namespace workload path
Supports a single active runtime profile:
prod (default): stable runtime from /home/vagrant/dashboard-work
dev: live reload runtime from /vagrant/dashboard

Services¶

sudo systemctl status dashboard-backend
sudo systemctl status dashboard-frontend
sudo systemctl restart dashboard-backend dashboard-frontend

Access¶

Access URLs (cluster baseline, dev frontend, API): see Dashboard Overview.

Phase 10: CAMARA Gateway (optional)¶

Location: ansible/phases/10-camara/

Optional addon, gated by camara_enabled. Deploys the CAMARA Location API gateway in front of the 5G core. Images are built in the 5g-northbound companion repository and pulled by tag.

See architecture/positioning-adapters.md.

Phase 11: Positioning Engine (optional)¶

Location: ansible/phases/11-positioning/

Optional addon, gated by positioning_enabled. Deploys the positioning engine that the CAMARA Location API relays to, with a pluggable adapter model.

See architecture/positioning-adapters.md.

Phase 12: Positioning Demo (optional)¶

Location: ansible/phases/12-positioning-demo/

Optional addon, gated by positioning_demo_enabled. Deploys the positioning demo SPA that exercises the CAMARA Location API end to end.

Troubleshooting Phases¶

Re-run a Phase¶

vagrant ssh ansible
cd ~/ansible-ro
ansible-playbook phases/04-overlay-network/playbook.yml

Skip Phases¶

ansible-playbook phases/00-main-playbook.yml --skip-tags phase6

Debug Mode¶

ansible-playbook phases/05-5g-core/playbook.yml -vvv

Deployment Phases¶

Phase Overview¶

Running Phases¶

Provisioning Flags (vagrant up)¶

Full Deployment¶

Core Only (Default)¶

Specific Phases¶

Phase 1: Infrastructure¶

What it does¶

Key files¶

Verify¶

Phase 2: Kubernetes¶

What it does¶

Key files¶

Verify¶

Phase 3: KubeEdge¶

What it does¶

Key files¶

Verify¶

Phase 4: Overlay Network¶

What it does¶

Key files¶

Verify¶

Phase 5: 5G Core¶

What it does¶

Key files¶

Verify¶

Phase 6: UERANSIM¶

What it does¶

Key files¶

Topology Configuration¶

Verify¶

Phase 7: Observability Stack¶

Deploy¶

Access¶

Pre-built Dashboards¶

Verify¶

Phase 8: IAM (Keycloak)¶

What it does¶

Verify¶

Phase 9: Dashboard Control Plane¶

Deploy / Reconcile¶

Development mode (live reload)¶

What it does¶

Services¶

Access¶

Phase 10: CAMARA Gateway (optional)¶

Phase 11: Positioning Engine (optional)¶

Phase 12: Positioning Demo (optional)¶

Troubleshooting Phases¶

Re-run a Phase¶

Skip Phases¶

Debug Mode¶

Related Documentation¶

Provisioning Flags (`vagrant up`)¶