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Communication over large-bandwidth millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum bands can provide high data rate, through utilizing highgain beamforming vectors (briefly, beams). Real-time tracking of such beams, which is needed for supporting mobile users, can be accomplished through developing machine learning (ML) models. While computer simulations were used to show the success of such ML models, experimental results are still limited. Consequently in this paper, we verify the effectiveness of mmWave beam tracking over the open-source COSMOS testbed. We particularly utilize a multi-armed bandit (MAB) scheme, which follows reinforcement learning (RL) approach. In our MAB-based beam tracking model, the beam selection is modeled as an action, while the reward of the algorithm is modeled through the link throughput. Experimental results, conducted over the 60-GHz COSMOS-based mobile platform, show that the MAB-based beam tracking learning model can achieve almost 92% throughput compared to the Genie-aided beams after a few learning samples. 

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. 

Power consumption is one of the significant challenges in millimeter wave (mmWave) systems due to the need to support wide bandwidths and large numbers of antennas. This paper explores energy efficient implementations of the baseband trans-receiver components for a multi-carrier 3GPP New Radio (NR) system. The analysis considers key components including channel selection filters, digital beamforming and FFT engines for the OFDM processing. A methodology is presented for optimizing bit widths in various components, which is critical in low power designs. Fully digital and analog beamforming architectures are also compared. Preliminary power estimates are provided using a TSMC 28 nm process for a 400 MHz system at 28 GHz similar to 5G systems today and a hypothetical 1.6 GHz system at 140 GHz for potential 6G deployment. 

This paper focuses on the K-12 educational activities of COSMOS-Cloud enhanced Open Software defined MObile wireless testbed for city-Scale deployment. The COSMOS wireless reasearch testbed is being deployed in West Harlem (New York City) as part of the NSF Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program. COSMOS' approach for K-12 education is twofold: (i) create an innovative and concrete set of methods/tools that allow teaching STEM subjects using live experiments related to wireless networks/IoT/cloud, and (ii) enhance the professional development (PD) of K-12 teachers and collaborate with them to create hands-on educational material for the students. The COSMOS team has already conducted successful pilot summer programs for middle and high school STEM teachers, where the team worked with the teachers and jointly developed innovative real-world experiments that were organized as automated and repeatable math, science, and computer science labs to be used in the classroom. The labs run on the COSMOS Educational Toolkit, a hardware and software system that offers a large variety of pre-orchestrated K-12 educational labs. The software executes and manages the experiments in the same operational philosophy as the COSMOS testbed. Specifically, since it is designed for use by non-technical middle and high school teachers/students, it adds easy-to-use enhancements to the experiments' execution and the results visualization. The labs are also supported by Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)-compliant teacher/student material. This paper describes the teachers' PD program, the NGSS lessons created and the hardware and software system developed to support the initiative. Additionally, it provides an evaluation of the PD approach as well as the expected impact to K-12 STEM education. Current limitations and future work are also included as part of the discussion section.