skip to main content


This content will become publicly available on October 1, 2024

Title: Programmable and Open-Access Millimeter-Wave Radios in the COSMOS Testbed: Design, Deployment, and Experimentation,”
While millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless has recently gained tremendous attention with the transition to 5G, developing a broadly accessible experimental infrastructure will allow the research community to make significant progress in this area. Hence, in this paper, we present the design and implementation of various programmable and open-access 28/60 GHz software-defined radios (SDRs), deployed in the PAWR COSMOS advanced wireless testbed. These programmable mmWave radios are based on the IBM 28 GHz 64-element dual-polarized phased array antenna module (PAAM) subsystem board and the Sivers IMA 60 GHz WiGig transceiver. These front ends are integrated with USRP SDRs or Xilinx RFSoC boards, which provide baseband signal processing capabilities. Moreover, we present measurements of the TX/RX beamforming performance and example experiments (e.g., real-time channel sounding and RFNoC-based 802.11ad preamble detection), using the mmWave radios. Finally, we discuss ongoing enhancement and development efforts focusing on these radios.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2029295
NSF-PAR ID:
10457292
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Computer networks communications
Volume:
234
ISSN:
1944-155X
Page Range / eLocation ID:
109922
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. null (Ed.)
    While millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless has recently gained tremendous attention with the transition to 5G, developing a broadly accessible experimental infrastructure will allow the research community to make significant progress in this area. Hence, in this paper, we present the design and implementation of various programmable and open-access 28/60 GHz software-defined radios (SDRs), deployed in the PAWR COSMOS advanced wireless testbed. These programmable mmWave radios are based on the IBM 28 GHz 64-element dual-polarized phased array antenna module (PAAM) subsystem board and the Sivers IMA 60 GHz WiGig transceiver. These front ends are integrated with USRP SDRs or Xilinx RF-SoC boards, which provide baseband signal processing capabilities. Moreover, we present measurements of the TX/RX beamforming performance and example experiments (e.g., real-time channel sounding and RFNoC-based 802.11ad preamble detection), using the mmWave radios. Finally, we discuss ongoing enhancement and development efforts focusing on these radios. 
    more » « less
  2. Baseband processing is one of the most time-consuming and computationally expensive tasks in radio access networks (RANs), which is typically realized in dedicated hardware. The concept of virtualizing the RAN functions by moving their computation to edge data centers can significantly reduce the deployment cost and enable more flexible use of the network resources. Recent studies have focused on software-based baseband processing for large-scale sub-6 GHz MIMO systems, while 5G also embraces the millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequency bands to achieve further improved data rates leveraging the widely available spectrum. Therefore, it is important to build a platform for the experimental investigation of software-based baseband processing for mmWave MIMO systems. In this paper, we implement programmable mmWave MIMO radios equipped with real-time baseband processing capability, leveraging the open-access PAWR COSMOS testbed. We first develop Agora-UHD, which enables UHD-based software-defined radios (SDRs) to interface with Agora, an open-source software realization of real-time massive MIMO baseband processing. Next, we integrate Agora-UHD with the USRP SDRs and IBM 28 GHz phased array antenna module (PAAM) subsystem boards deployed in the PAWR COSMOS testbed. We demonstrate a 2×2 28 GHz polarization MIMO link with a bandwidth of 122.88 MHz, and show that it can meet the real-time processing deadline of 0.375 ms (3 transmission time intervals for numerology 3 in 5G NR FR2) using only 8 CPU cores. The source code of Agora-UHD and its integration with the programmable 28 GHz radios in the COSMOS testbed with example tutorials are made publicly available. 
    more » « less
  3. Communication at mmWave bands carries critical importance for 5G wireless networks. In this paper, we study the characterization of mmWave air-to-ground (AG) channels for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications. In particular, we use ray tracing simulations using Remcom Wireless InSite software to study the behavior of AG mmWave bands at two different frequencies: 28 GHz and 60 GHz. Received signal strength (RSS) and root mean square delay spread (RMS-DS) of multipath components (MPCs) are analyzed for different UAV heights considering four different environments: urban, suburban, rural, and over sea. It is observed that the RSS mostly follows the two ray propagation model along the UAV flight path for higher altitudes. This two ray propagation model is affected by the presence of high rise scatterers in urban scenario. Moreover, we present details of a universal serial radio peripheral (USRP) based channel sounder that can be used for AG channel measurements for mmWave (60 GHz) UAV communications. 
    more » « less
  4. There is much interest in integrating millimeter wave radios (mmWave) into wireless LANs and 5G cellular networks to benefit from their multi-GHz of available spectrum. Yet, unlike existing technologies, e.g., WiFi, mmWave radios require highly directional antennas. Since the antennas have pencil-beams, the transmitter and receiver need to align their beams before they can communicate. Existing systems scan the space to find the best alignment. Such a process has been shown to introduce up to seconds of delay and is unsuitable for wireless networks where an access point has to quickly switch between users and accommodate mobile clients. This paper presents Agile-Link, a new protocol that can find the best mmWave beam alignment without scanning the space. Given all possible directions for setting the antenna beam, Agile-Link provably finds the optimal direction in logarithmic number of measurements. Further, Agile-Link works within the existing 802.11ad standard for mmWave LAN, and can support both clients and access points. We have implemented Agile-Link in a mmWave radio and evaluated it empirically. Our results show that it reduces beam alignment delay by orders of magnitude. In particular, for highly directional mmWave devices operating under 802.11ad, the delay drops from over a second to 2.5 ms. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract—Millimeter-wave (mmWave) and sub-Terahertz (THz) frequencies are expected to play a vital role in 6G wireless systems and beyond due to the vast available bandwidth of many tens of GHz. This paper presents an indoor 3-D spatial statistical channel model for mmWave and sub-THz frequencies based on extensive radio propagation measurements at 28 and 140 GHz conducted in an indoor office environment from 2014 to 2020. Omnidirectional and directional path loss models and channel statistics such as the number of time clusters, cluster delays, and cluster powers were derived from over 15,000 measured power delay profiles. The resulting channel statistics show that the number of time clusters follows a Poisson distribution and the number of subpaths within each cluster follows a composite exponential distribution for both LOS and NLOS environments at 28 and 140 GHz. This paper proposes a unified indoor statistical channel model for mmWave and sub-Terahertz frequencies following the mathematical framework of the previous outdoor NYUSIM channel models. A corresponding indoor channel simulator is developed, which can recreate 3-D omnidirectional, directional, and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channels for arbitrary mmWave and sub-THz carrier frequency up to 150 GHz, signal bandwidth, and antenna beamwidth. The presented statistical channel model and simulator will guide future air-interface, beamforming, and transceiver designs for 6G and beyond. Index Terms—Millimeter-wave, terahertz, radio propagation, indoor office scenario, channel measurement, channel modeling, channel simulation, NYUSIM, 28 GHz, 140 GHz, 142 GHz, 5G, 6G. 
    more » « less