II-EN: Radio Testbed Upgrade to Enable Wideband and MIMO Experiments

该项目升级了弗吉尼亚理工大学（VT）的认知无线网络试验台（CORNET），增加了新的处理、网络和射频（RF）硬件和软件，并重新设计了试验台架构，使许多工程和科学学科的前沿研究成为可能。CORNET目前由48个软件可编程无线电节点组成，这些节点促进了7年来无线通信的实验研究和教育。此次升级将增加必要的无线电和计算基础设施，通过与弗吉尼亚理工大学的计算机科学、电气和计算机工程以及航空航天和海洋工程研究人员的合作，支持CISE在通信、计算和运输等新兴技术/监管/经济领域的引人注目的研究和实验。新的CORNET测试平台能够推进射频（RF）频谱接入的研究。资源虚拟化，通过共享和分布式资源（RF频谱、无线电节点、计算节点、测试平台）的联合提供有效的按需服务，与政府商业通信系统、雷达、自动驾驶汽车、第五代（5G）蜂窝通信、物联网等应用共存。拟议的升级需要使CORNET能够继续服务于弗吉尼亚理工大学的跨部门和跨学科研究需求。该试验台允许不同的学生和教师群体在多个学科的科学和技术方面学习、合作和创新。教育活动包括扩展弗吉尼亚理工大学的本科生和研究生课程，利用新的测试平台功能进行实验。该项目侧重于三个核心重点：(a)硬件升级，(b)网络/资源管理升级（虚拟化，计算集群，更好的调度），(c)用户软件升级（预配置实验和教程）。硬件升级增加了30个宽带Ettus Research USRP X310软件定义无线电（SDR）前端（X310），带有60个宽带子板和多个天线。由30台多核服务器组成的高性能计算集群，形成一个非传统的共享基带处理中心。分布式射频前端通过专用的10gbps以太网连接到中央计算集群，实现灵活关联。提出的软件升级允许资源虚拟化，以实现高效的无线电、计算和网络资源共享，并更好地支持用户和实验管理。四个室内测试平台中的一个将配备12对x310，可以配置为MIMO操作或用作收发器和监视器。将安装额外的X310对，其余三层各安装一对，并重新部署当前的硬件以支持尽可能多的并发用户和用例场景。该配置能够对空间多路复用、分集、波束形成和测向技术以及相关通信协议进行实验研究。监控配置通过为每个发射机提供实时和可识别的光谱来分析，记录或根据需要显示，从而促进频谱共享研究和教育，以实现实验，教程或竞赛。将开发基本教程，使弗吉尼亚理工大学的广大研究人员和学生能够有效地访问和使用测试平台。

The project upgrades the Cognitive Radio Network Testbed (CORNET) at Virginia Tech (VT) by adding new processing, networking and radio frequency (RF) hardware and software and redesigning the testbed architecture to enable cutting edge research across many engineering and science disciplines. CORNET currently comprises 48 software programmable radio nodes that have facilitated experimental research and education in wireless communications for seven years. The upgrade will add the necessary radio and computing infrastructure to support compelling CISE research and experimentation in emerging and new technological/regulatory/economic areas in communications, computing and transportation, among others, through collaborations with computer science, electrical and computer engineering and aerospace and ocean engineering researchers at Virginia Tech. The new CORNET testbed enables advancing research in radio frequency (RF) spectrum access, resource virtualization for effective on demand service provisioning through sharing, and federation of distributed resources (RF spectrum, radio nodes, computing nodes, testbeds) with applications to coexistence of government commercialcommunications systems and radars, autonomous vehicles, fifth generation (5G) cellular communications, Internet of Things, and many others. The proposed upgrades are needed to enable CORNET to continue to serve cross department and interdisciplinary research needs at Virginia Tech. The testbed allows a diverse student and faculty population to learn, cooperate and innovate in science and technology across several disciplines. The educational activities include extending undergraduate and graduate classes at Virginia Tech with experimental hands on sessions that leverage the new testbed capabilities.The project focuses on three core thrusts: (a) Hardware upgrade, (b) Network/resource management upgrade (virtualization, computing clusters, better scheduling), (c) User software upgrade (preconfigured experiments & tutorials). The hardware upgrade adds 30 wide-band Ettus Research USRP X310 software defined radio (SDR) front ends (X310s) with 60 wide-band daughter boards and multiple antennas. A high performance computing cluster consisting of 30 multi-core servers to form a nontraditional shared baseband processing center. The distributed RF front ends are connected to the central computing cluster through a dedicated 10 Gbps Ethernet network that allows flexible association. Proposed software upgrades allow resource virtualization for efficient radio, computing and network resource sharing and better support for user and experiment management. One of the four indoor testbed floors will be equipped with 12 pairs of X310s that can be configured for MIMO operation or use as transceiver and monitor. Additional X310 pairs will be installed, one pair on each of the remaining three floors, and current hardware redeployed to support as many concurrent users and use case scenarios as possible. The configuration enables experimental investigation of spatial multiplexing, diversity, beam forming, and direction-finding techniques and related communication protocols. The monitoring configuration facilitates spectrum sharing research and education by providing real-time and identifiable spectra for each transmitter to be analyzed, logged, or displayed as needed to enable an experiment, tutorial, or contest. Basic tutorials will be developed to enable effective access and use of the testbed by a broad population of researchers and students at Virginia Tech.