Open Wireless Digital Twin: End-to-End 5G Mobility Emulation in O-RAN Framework

Abstract: This paper presents an end-to-end wireless digital twin platform constructed using open-source software and open data to enhance the evaluation of mobile communication systems. The proposed open wireless digital twin (OWDT) integrates OpenAirInterface (OAI) for 5G NR protocol stack emulation and NVIDIA Sionna RT for high-resolution ray tracing based radio propagation modeling. This integration enables realistic emulation of vehicular mobility scenarios, leveraging real-world geographic and building data to bridge the gap between theoretical simulations and real-world deployments. The platform utilizes O-RAN's Near-RT RIC via OAI FlexRIC to dynamically monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) such as RSRP, MCS, BLER, and throughput in real time. Through extensive evaluation in urban environments, this study demonstrates the validity of the emulation framework, revealing its capability to replicate real-world communication dynamics with high fidelity. The results underscore the potential of OWDT in accelerating wireless system development, reducing experimental costs, and optimizing network configurations.