2026 International Conference on Networks Computers and Communications (ICNCCom 2026)

This paper presents the deployment of an open-source 5G Standalone (5G SA) testbed at Cheikh Hamidou Kane Digital University (UNCHK), addressing the lack of hands-on mobile network training in the Senegalese academic context. The platform builds on Open5GS, implementing all eleven 3GPP Release 16 network functions orchestrated via Docker Compose on a standard Linux server. The radio access network is emulated by UERANSIM, while a Prometheus/Grafana real-time monitoring stack ensures full infrastructure observability with a five-second scrape interval. Experimental validation confirms 3GPP-compliant UE registration, a PDU session establishment delay of 555~ms, zero packet loss end-to-end connectivity with a mean RTT of 110.5~ms, and a memory footprint below 600~MiB across all seventeen containers, compatible with UNCHK's Open Digital Space servers. A structured six-module lab framework is proposed for the Digital Science and Technology Department, aligned with the Senegal Digital Strategy 2025 and the institutional partnership between UNCHK and ARTP, demonstrating that a fully reproducible 5G SA experimentation environment can be deployed at near-zero hardware cost in an African digital university.

5G Standalone, Open5GS, Docker Compose, UERANSIM, Prometheus/Grafana, Educational Testbed