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National Science Foundation experiments with open source 5G technology The infrastructure is built with common-off-the-shelf hardware. Open-source so ware that includes the Open Air Interface (OAI) 5G so ware stack runs on the radios. The National Science Foundation has a research center in Salt Lake City, Utah, called the Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) and it recently announced new 5G research capabili es at PAWR with a focus on open-source so ware. Apparently, the government didn't get the memo that unnecessary acronyms are annoying. It's calling the new 5G research POWDER, which stands for Pla orm for Open Wireless Data- driven Experimental Research. The folks working on POWDER have implemented open-source so ware on top of an outdoor 5G radio network to conduct experiments on wireless technology. Those experiments include open radio access network (open RAN) technologies and other innova ons in virtualized networking. The infrastructure is built with common-off-the-shelf hardware. Open-source so ware that includes the Open Air Interface (OAI) 5G so ware stack runs on the radios. The OAI-based 5G network is available as a click-to-install so ware profile. POWDER is using Ci zens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum, but other spectrum bands could also be used in the future. "The POWDER 5G capabili es come layered on top of a sophis cated resource management pla orm and include access to backhaul connec vity," stated the NSF announcement. "We expect researchers and scien sts not just from Utah, but across the country, to engage with the POWDER pla orm in the pursuit of a common open pla orm that will truly enable the adop on of 5G wireless and edge technologies for our na on and beyond," said Margaret Martonosi, assistant director at the U.S. Na onal Science Founda on. POWDER is being used by researchers at the University of Utah, among others, and is also remotely accessible to researchers across the academic, government and private sectors. Mari Silbey, PAWR program director, said, "The POWDER team has worked at the fron ers of both programmable hardware and open-source so ware development to create an advanced research environment. As a result, they have launched one of the only testbeds in the country with an outdoor, over-the-air, fully programmable 5G network. The POWDER testbed has been fully programmable since its launch in 2019. Since that me, researchers have steadily contributed to a catalog of so ware profiles that enable a range of network environments. NSF said that crea ng an open-source mobile broadband network has been the most difficult setup to achieve. Ar cle Credit: h ps://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/na onal-science-founda on-experiments- open-source-5g-technology Talleycom.com SHEET QUARTER 1 2023

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