CCI xG Testbed Pioneers CBRS Research

The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative’s xG Testbed is conducting first-of-its-kind research in Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS). 

The CCI xG Testbed has two sites, one of which is an outdoor CBRS private network, being built in Blacksburg, Va.

Virginia Tech holds a priority access license for the CBRS spectrum in two counties in Virginia. This spectrum is being used in production and research to create a private 5G network that will monitor flood control, and to deploy an outdoor component of the CCI xG Testbed.

In demonstrations presented at the Mobile World Congrees in Las Vegas and at CCI's Arlington Hub, we show an end-to-end CBRS experimental network composed of two main building blocks: 

•  A software-defined radio system (SDR) and system-radio-software radio access network (srsRAN)-based CBRS base station prototype.
•  An open-source spectrum access system (SAS). 

The CBRS SDR-based prototype is designed to enhance research and development in the SAS ecosystem. It focuses on investigating SAS vulnerabilities and testing new mechanisms to mitigate them.

In another first, CCI presents  OpenSAS, an open-source spectrum access system that emulates the real SAS, enabling experimentation in the SAS ecosystem. The demonstration shows:

•  Registration and authentication of the CBRS prototype using a GoogleSAS testing environment.
•  Interaction between two CBRS tiers orchestrated by the OpenSAS.

The figures show the high-level system design of the CBRS demonstration and its key components.