Why Trace5G · for telecom teams, trainers and vendors

See inside a real 4G/5G network in minutes, not weeks.

No lab to book, no box to buy, no quote to wait for. Trace5G boots a real core, a real base station and a real phone for you, in a browser, and decodes every message on every layer live, as the 3GPP standards write it. 5G SA, 5G NSA and 4G LTE.

A lab and a waitFive-figure boxes, four-week lead timesYours on demandTrace5G boots a real core, cell and phoneNothing to installA browser. First record in 1 m 40 sAll layers decoded12 layers, 34 interfaces, 52 3GPP specs
A lab and a waitFive-figure boxes, four-week lead timesYours on demandTrace5G boots a real core, cell and phoneNothing to installA browser. First record in 1 m 40 sAll layers decoded12 layers, 34 interfaces, 52 3GPP specs
A lab and a waitFive-figure boxes, four-week lead times0102Yours, on demandTrace5G boots a real core, cell and phoneNothing to installA browser. First record in 1 m 40 s0304All layers decoded12 layers, 34 interfaces, 52 3GPP specs
A lab and a waitFive-figure boxes, four-week lead times0102Yours on demandTrace5G boots a real core, cell and phoneNothing to installA browser. First record in 1 m 40 s0304All layers decoded12 layers, 34 interfaces, 52 3GPP specs
The whole page in one line.

Open the lab → trace5g.com/labWhy it matters ↓

Every number on this page comes from a run that actually happened. Sources at the end of the page.

1 · A real trace is the most expensive view in telecom

Ask the simplest question, “why does the phone do that?”, and the honest answer today is a purchase order or a booking. A real protocol trace needs a real network, and a real network is hardware, licences, a room, and the one person who knows how to run it.

Book the labA slot next week, shared with everyoneConfigure by handCore, cell and UE, box by boxCapture per boxRadio, core and IMS, three capturesCorrelate by handOne tool per layer, clocks in a sheetPaste screenshotsAn email nobody can rerun
Book the labA slot next week, shared with everyoneConfigure by handCore, cell and UE, box by boxCapture per boxRadio, core and IMS, three capturesCorrelate by handOne tool per layer, clocks in a sheetPaste screenshotsAn email nobody can rerun
The week that follows one small question in a physical lab. A general description; no statistics are claimed.

What seeing a trace takes today

Four ways to get one, in the vendors’ own words. Good tools, each built for something else. Read 2026‑09‑13; sources below.

RouteWhat you seeWhat it takesPrice, as published
A network emulator in a box
e.g. AMARI Callbox		A real base station and core in one box, for testing real phones over the air. “Selective logging and display of all layers of 3GPP LTE and NR stacks.”The box, antennas, a test phone, an RF setup and someone to run it. “Lead time 4 weeks.”Vendor: “Contact us”. Reseller listings: $24,999 (LTE Mini), $32,999 (Classic), $108,999 (Ultimate).
A signaling tester
e.g. R&S CMX500		A device-testing instrument: LTE, 5G NR SA and NSA, FR1 and FR2.A bench, a device under test, and a specialist.“Get a quote.” No price published.
A modem diagnostic tool
e.g. QXDM		The over-the-air messages of one phone, as its modem saw them.A licence from the chipset vendor, a phone with that chipset in diagnostic mode, a cable. Still no network of your own.Licence price not published. Training “only available for QXDM licensees”.
A training lab
e.g. Mpirical NetXlabs		A 5G core with a “device and gNB simulator” on a cloud instance; “Wireshark trace analysis”, tutorials, quizzes.An account. Built for learning exercises, not for your own procedures or radio parameters.£295 for 6 months, single licence.
Do it yourself
open-source stacks		Real stacks if you build them: free software, radio hardware or an emulated link.Your own integration time, then the expertise to keep it running. Logs in files; no analyzer.Free software. The time is yours.

Sources: the vendors’ and resellers’ own pages, read 2026-09-13. The full list is at the end of the page. Trace5G’s own pricing is not discussed here.

weeks to a traceminutes to a tracesimulatedreal networkHardware labsReal. Boxes, quotes, weeksTrace5GReal. A browser, minutesDo it yourselfFree stacks, your own timeTraining labsSimulated device and cell
weeks to a traceminutes to a tracesimulatedreal networkHardware labsReal. Boxes, quotes, weeksTrace5GReal. A browser, minutesDo it yourselfFree stacks, your own timeTraining labsSimulated device and cell
The same routes on the two axes a buyer cares about: how real the network is, and how long until you see a trace. Placement is our reading of the pages above; Trace5G’s own numbers are on this page.

Also true

These are good tools for what they were built for. A callbox tests a real phone over RF, which Trace5G does not do. A modem tool shows the phone’s side of one link. A training lab teaches a procedure; Trace5G runs yours.

The box is not the expensive part. The waiting is.

2 · Today, and with Trace5G

Same team, same questions. What changes is where the network lives: in a room you book, or in a browser tab that is yours for the run.

VSBuy, integrate, booka lab you share with everyoneOne setupa change is a new bookingCaptures per boxdecoded in different toolsScreenshotsa description of what happenedA browser and an accounta real network boots for your runPrivate per runchange one thing, run againOne trace, all layersIE tree and hex, one clockPCAP and JSONany finished run reopens
VSBuy, integrate, booka lab you share with everyoneOne setupa change is a new bookingCaptures per boxdecoded in different toolsScreenshotsa description of what happenedA browser and an accounta real network boots for your runPrivate per runchange one thing, run againOne trace, all layersIE tree and hex, one clockPCAP and JSONany finished run reopens
Left: a physical-lab workflow, described in general terms. Right: what trace5g.com does today.

3 · Your own real network, in a browser tab

Trace5G boots a real mobile core, a real base station and a real UE for every run, on a real radio link, allocated to you alone, and streams the decoded trace into a live analyzer while the network is up. Nothing is replayed, nothing is templated: you read the packets as they were sent.

Now you can ask the network directly, instead of asking for lab time.

Ask today, answer todayA real network boots in minutesChange one thing, rerunEvery radio parameter really bootsKeep the evidenceOne decoded trace, PCAP and JSON
Ask today, answer todayA real network boots in minutesChange one thing, rerunEvery radio parameter really bootsKeep the evidenceOne decoded trace, PCAP and JSON
Three things that are true on trace5g.com today.

Your network, as you drew it: a phone, a cell, a full 5G core and voice services. Press Run and every box on this canvas becomes real.

Measured, not promised A 5G SA run on trace5g.com went from pressing Run to the first decoded record in 1 m 40 s. Source: trace5g.com/docs, “How a run works”, 2026‑09‑10.

4 · How easy, how fast

Nothing to install, nothing to buy, nothing to integrate. Three steps in a browser, and a real network is yours for as long as you keep the run up. Change one thing, run again, compare: minutes, not a booking.

ComposeDraw the network. Set the real radio parameters.RunA real 4G/5G network boots for you alone.InvestigateRead every layer live. Export, rerun, reopen.
ComposeDraw the network. Set the real radio parameters.RunA real 4G/5G network boots for you alone.InvestigateRead every layer live. Export, rerun, reopen.
Compose the network, run it, investigate the trace. Optional steps run on the live network after it boots: a call, an SMS, a download, a failure, a handover.

Start from a preset (registration, a data session, a call, an SMS, an outage, a handover) or compose your own steps, and keep them for the next run. Every finished run reopens from history exactly as it was: the same table, ladder, decodes and KPIs.

5 · Real 3GPP standards, every single detail

This is where a marketing page usually gets vague. Ours cannot, because the product is the evidence. Every message is decoded against the 3GPP definitions and shown down to the leaf: the information element tree, the bytes on the wire, the same record as JSON and as text. Twelve layers from the radio to the core, 34 interfaces, 52 specifications referenced next to the procedures.

Not a rendering of what should have happened. The packets, as they were sent.

6 · Who it’s for

Protocol engineersReproduce, inject a failure, read every layerTeams and labsA private network per engineer, presets, exportsEducators and studentsA procedure from the standard, run live
Protocol engineersReproduce, inject a failure, read every layerTeams and labsA private network per engineer, presets, exportsEducators and studentsA procedure from the standard, run live
Three kinds of people, one private network each.
  • Protocol engineers. Now you can reproduce the exact procedure under the radio parameters you choose, inject a failure and read every layer on one clock.
  • Teams and labs. Now you can give every engineer a private network instead of a slot on a shared one, and hand a review the trace instead of a story.
  • Educators and students. Now you can turn a procedure from the standard into a live experiment each learner runs, and reopens.

These are our promises, written from the customer’s side. They are not customer quotes; there are none yet.

7 · What changes for your team

Four things a team gets back, each built on something the platform already does today. Trace5G publishes no ROI claims: your numbers come out of your own runs, measured on your own questions.

111222333444Faster answersA real network boots in minutes, so the question is answered the same daySafer changesTry the change on your own network first, then roll it outFewer hours per caseEvery layer on one clock; root cause in one place, not across toolsLower lab costNo rack to buy, integrate or share; the network exists only while you run it
111222333444Faster answersA real network boots in minutes, so the question is answered the same daySafer changesTry the change on your own network first, then roll it outFewer hours per caseEvery layer on one clock; root cause in one place, not across toolsLower lab costNo rack to buy, integrate or share; the network exists only while you run it
Faster answers, safer changes, fewer hours per case, no rack to own.