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Blacksburg-Based Graduate Research Assistants (Ph.D, Masters)

CCI and the Virginia Tech Information Technology Department seek a research and development (R&D) graduate research assistant (GRA) to help conduct research in a CBRS Experimental Network Infrastructure being deployed at Stroubles Creek Park on the Virginia Tech Campus in Blacksburg.

The GRA will work with CCI Testbed Director Aloizio Da Silva and Scott Midkiff, a professor at Virginia Tech, as part of the CCI xG Testbed team project, which includes partners in the federal government, industry (WiSig, AT&T, Verizon, Keysight, Fujitsu, Nokia, Radisys), and academia (University of Notre Dame, Texas A&M). 

The research will be conducted on top of a real network infrastructure going from Application to Physical layers. 

Key Job Requirements and Responsibilities:

The GRA must be enrolled at an Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department with a background in computer network and wireless communication, and must also be interested in an MS or PhD position in the wireless network field that focuses on spectrum sharing.

The GRA will join CCI’s xG Testbed research team, led by DaSilva, to conduct research following O-RAN Alliance specification and 3GPP standards on: 

  • Spectrum Sharing.
  • CBRS.
  • Open Centralized Unit (O-CU).
  • Open Distributed Unit (O-DU).
  • Open Radio Unit (O-RU).
  • Network Function Virtualization (VNF).
  • Radio Intelligent Controller (RIC). 

The GRA will conduct testing and evaluation for new and existing solutions. Duties will include developing proof of concept, algorithm design, implementation and testing in software and hardware.

Key Job Activities

  • Configure hardware and software components in the network infrastructure.
  • Study and investigate CBRS ecosystem and spectrum policies.
  • Deploy end-to-end 5G network using open-source platforms.
  • Deploy, implement, analyze, and integrate multi-core environments into CCI xG Testbed software outdoor architecture.
  • Develop O-RAN Non-RT-RIC and Near-RT RIC rApp/xApp/macroservice using AI/ML model.
  • Support edge computing deployment, configuration and implementation into CCI xG Testbed system design and architecture outdoors.
  • Implement 5G Core VNFs instantiation (mainly AMF and UPF).
  • Implement O-RAN use cases for validation.
  • Integrate hardware and software components from different vendors, as well as open-source.
  • Write papers and deliver presentations.

Key Job Deliverables

  • O-RAN Software Defined Radio (SDR)-based open-source outdoor architecture.
  • Prototype, demos and showcase based on the outdoor infrastructure
  • MS or Ph.D. thesis.
  • Publication in high-caliber conferences and journals.

For More Information

Contact CCI xG Testbed Director Aloizio Da Silva at aloiziops@vt.edu.