Mobile and Wireless Networking


CU Wide-Area Radio Testbed

The CU Wide-Area Radio Testbed (CU-WART) is a testbed maintained by the Computer Systems research group in the Department of Computer Science.

The testbed was initially used to deploy WiFi access points coupled with an analog phase-array antenna system manufactured by Fidelity-Commtech as part of a series of NSF-funded grants on routing and MAC layer design in networks with directional antennas.

In addition, testbed locations were used to deploy WiMax equipment as part of the NSF GENI wireless system in conjunction with Rutgers Winlab.

More recently, the infrastructure of the testbed is being used for wireless measurement hardware in collaboration with the Institute for Telecommunications Sciences at the National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA/ITS). This resource is part of a cooperative research agreement between the University of Colorado and NTIA/ITS. That project enables measurement of wireless spectrum and system occupancy and spectrum utilization, testing and evaluation of spectrum sharing scenarios, and validation of radio wave propagation models. It also will help to develop early interference detection, interference mitigation, and spectrum forensics techniques.

Within the NTIA/ITS collaboration, multiple of their Greyhound sensors have been deployed around campus; covering over 400,000 square meters. These sensors are composed of SDRs (Ettus USRP B210), Intel Nuc, and front end RF filtering. They are controlled through NTIA/ITS’s SCOS remote sensing software architecture. The sensor’s development and calibration is described in more detail by (Mathys, 2019) cited below. These sensors have been used to monitor the 700 MHz band occupancy, and to perform a proof-a-concept for cell-site TDOA-geolocation of commercial cells in the 700 MHz bands.

Testbed Information

Roof Sensor Locations

  • University Memorial Center
  • Flemming Law Building
  • Folsom Football Stadium
  • Engineering Center
  • Duane Physics Building
  • Stearns Residence Hall

Publications

Bounding the error of path loss models

C. Phillips, D. Sicker and D. Grunwald, “Bounding the error of path loss models,” 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN), 2011, pp. 71-82, doi: 10.1109/DYSPAN.2011.5936271.

Spectrum Monitoring Network: Tradeoffs, Results, and Future Directions

Mathys, Peter. “Spectrum Monitoring Network: Tradeoffs, Results, and Future Directions.” Proceedings of the GNU Radio Conference, v. 4, n. 1, sep. 2019.