Improving RAN Protocol Software Performance in 5G gNodeB Distributed Unit (DU) by Optimizing Packet Storage, Release, Segmentation, and Concatenation Handling

Massive MIMO 5G New Radio (NR) base station (gNodeB) system with Downlink (DL) high-speed requirement over 3Gbps per cell, serving toward thousands connected User Equipments (UEs) lead to problems in packet processing performance. Packet processing according to the Third Generation Partnership (3GPP) specifications 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) protocol in Distributed Unit (DU) including the following operations: storage, segmentation, concatenation, and release. We redesigned and optimized DU packet processing using Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) solution. A simulation running with five hundred connected UEs in Radio Link Control Acknowledge Mode (RLC AM) performed to profile and evaluate the improvement, it shows reduced CPU load and reduced processing time of real-time tasks.