Commonwealth Cyber Initiative installs 72 radio nodes into xG test bed

Today we're setting up our big next G (generation) or xG test bed. So it's the first test bed that is really of this kind of scope and enabled for research and experimentation with 5G systems. And the systems that they're going to come after 5G, which sometimes are called Next G. Some people call it 6G So the name of the test bed is the xG test bed. My name is Luis DaSilva and I'm a professor at Virginia Tech and I'm the Executive Director of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative. One of the things that's really unique about this test bed is that it's all based on open source solutions. So that enables us to really change all kinds of technologies and experiment with technologies that have not been standardized yet, that are not in the markets. So far as I know, this is the largest radio network concealing, deploy an indoor environment. Okay, that is completely open source software base that give the students the possibility to turn, to modify things and trying different mechanisms, different approach and, also do fundamental research. I'm mainly working on open radio access networks and we need large-scale open and re-programmable and reconfigurable test beds. And this exactly serves that purpose, where we need to experiment with new novel technologies. With respect to, let's say, the physical layer or the MAC layer in the network stack. So things that are yet to come, we can test them and see how they work. Refine the technologies of that inter preparation for the next generation of network, that are going to be pervasive in our communities, in our lives.