CCI Showcased at Mobile World Congress 2022
CCI Goes Global at MWC
The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) joined exhibitors from around the world in spotlighting our work at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Las Vegas September 28-30, 2022.
The event, presented by the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), in partnership with the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA), featured the fastest-growing trends in connectivity and mobile innovation.
The event’s theme: Connectivity Unleashed.
Among the projects CCI showcased:
- The CCI xG Testbed: It emphasizes programmability and interoperability, with a focus on open interfaces and open-source software. Key areas include securing 5G and next-generation mobile networks, and AI assurance. This is the only testbed of its type in the United States.
- A 5G Smart Warehouse for Marines: The Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation, working with CCI, won a $13 million Department of Defense contract at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Ga. CCI funded a substantive portion of the proposal development and created the connections to build the team.
Sgt. Roderick Gervin Jr., of Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Ga., transports equipment. A smart warehouse project at the base will use 5G wireless combined with internet of things sensor networks.
- Partnership with Software Radio Systems: This collaboration between CCI and European-based Software Radio Systems (SRS) showcases and demonstrates the latest SRS software advancements for both 5G — the current fastest network — and NextG, which promises to be faster yet, embedding artificial intelligence in the management of the network and enabling a new generation of mission-critical applications.
CCI Demonstrations
The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative’s xG Testbed is conducting first-of-its-kind research in Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN). The CCI xG Testbed has two sites, one of which is an indoor radio network (72 software-defined radio systems, or SDRs) at the CCI hub in Arlington, Va.
In demonstrations presented at the Mobile World Congrees in Las Vegas and at CCI's Arlington Hub, we show our End-to-End O-RAN research. The CCI xG Testbed demonstration shows how an O-RAN secure network can be used to prioritize the communications needs of emergency first responders while ensuring the general public’s calls and texts go through.
High-level end-to-end O-RAN demo architecture:
O-RAN demo diagram one
End-to-end O-RAN demo architectural building blocks:
O-RAN demo diagram two
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).
High-level end-to-end CBRS demo architecture:
CBRS Diagram one
End-to-end CBRS demo architectural building blocks:
CBRS Diagram two
