North American OTIC in Washington, D.C., Metro Area (Virginia Tech)
The Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) Alliance has designated the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative as North American Open Testing and Integration Center (OTIC) in Washington D.C./Arlington Va.
The CCI xG Testbed at the Virginia Tech Research Center (VTRC) in Arlington provides testing capabilities for end-to-end radio access network interoperability, conformance, and performance in lab and field environments.
As an OTIC, it supports both end-to-end open-source and multi-vendor O-RAN components. It also provides a platform to realize an end-to-end intelligent RAN control-loop supported by an Artificial Intelligence (AI)/ Machine Learning (ML) framework, which is embedded in the wireless network infrastructure.
CCI’s OTIC is strengthened with in-lab (VTRC) and field (Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg Campus) testing environments. These facilities are equipped with hardware and software that enables researchers to validate disaggregated RAN — Open Centralized Unit (O-CU); Open Distributed Unit (O-DU); Open Radio Unit (O-RU) — components across different locations and transport networks over the air (OTA).
OTIC enables researchers to test and validate RAN components’ interaction with Radio Intelligent Controllers (RICs) and AI/ML-based microservices/applications (i.e., xApps and rApps). Multi-vendor RAN components can be integrated into to our O-RAN in lab and field infrastructure and third-party applications can be easily onboarded via RIC dashboards and Service Management Orchestration (SMO) on the cloud or edge environment. OTIC offers additional O-RAN related services such as use case and proof-of-concept development and end-to-end open-source-based evaluation.
Partnerships
AT&T, DISH Network, and Verizon join CCI as OTIC co-hosts in uniting to realize OTIC’s mission of accelerating national O-RAN advancement, innovation, and deployment.
Additional partners include:
- George Mason University (represented by Vijay Shah).
- Wireless@VT (represented by Jeff Reed).
- Old Dominion University (represented by Sachin Shetty).
CCI xG Testbed Provides a Range of Services
Remote Access
Utilize the xG Testbed capabilities while in your own laboratory or office.
Interoperability
Confirm RAN components are interoperable across multi-vendor platforms in the lab and in the field.
Performance
Assess your O-RAN components using metrics and quantitative measures.
Conformance
Ensure your O-RAN components will meet standards, rules, and regulations.
CCI xG Testbed Locations Include Indoor, Outdoor Environments
Radio-Grid Network at Virginia Tech Research Center in Washington, D.C., Metro Area
Stroubles Creek CBRS Network at Virginia Tech's Blacksburg Campus
For more information about the North American OTIC in Washington D.C./Arlington Va. (Virginia Tech), contact us at: