Research & Development Labs

The  Advanced Optics & Fiber Lab is an Optical Center of Excellence—a state-of-the-art facility for developing and testing research concepts. In this lab, optical experts have demonstrated the transmission of 50 Tbps over a single fiber, 100G+ coherent passive optical network, optical wavelength switching methods and advanced sensing of environmental events.

The Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) Lab is used to establish new specification requirements, validate existing specifications, verify theories and conduct experiments related to future technology options. This state-of-the-art lab has been a foundational piece in the successful development of DOCSIS^® 4.0 and Low Latency DOCSIS (LLD) technologies. Our vendors are heavily involved in this lab and contribute to its development.

The Mobile Lab offers a range of capabilities, including performance testing of radio access network (RAN), shared spectrum and mobile backhaul solutions.

This lab environment was created to support development of network technologies, interfaces, and interoperability for the mobile ecosystem. The capabilities of the lab ensure that the equipment provided by vendors meets necessary performance and functionality specifications and enables interoperability development among multiple vendors. It can support a range of activities including conformance, proof of concept, deployment, performance measurement and simulation.

It supports lab and field tests of 3GPP based core and radio access network (RAN) equipment including 4G LTE, 5G NR, 5G NR-U, Wi-Fi, non-3GPP equipment and new wireless technologies. Multiple vendors’ solutions in the vRAN and ORAN space are featured. A virtual Kubernetes-based platform for ORAN vendor interface compliance testing and interoperability has been implemented.

The shared spectrum capabilities support over-the-air and performance measurements of Citizens Band Radio Service (CBRS) network behavior in a multi-operator, multi-SAS environment with GAA and PAL licenses. Currently, the lab supports 4G CBRS networks and will support 5G CBRS networks once they’re commercially available. As CBRS and similar shared spectrum (e.g., 6 GHz) and networks (e.g., 5G NR-U) continue to mature, this lab will investigate deployment strategies, architectures, proofs of concept and performance.

Mobile Backhaul capabilities support the mission of collaborative development, testing and deployment of low-cost, high-quality open-source mobile connectivity. They are designed to test DOCSIS Timing Protocol (DTP) and Low Latency Xhaul (LLX) solutions. These capabilities provide the test network, test equipment and expertise for testing at all stages of development, from proof of concept to the transition into the commercial readiness phase. 

Multi-vendor development of pre-commercial DTP software and hardware has been conducted in the lab. The software and hardware has been tested against both varying HFC network conditions (i.e., loading, service flows, architecture) and a cloud-based calibration application has been developed. 

The lab has been used to host non-ideal fronthaul testing for the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) community, providing a successful proof-of-concept validation of non-ideal fronthaul over DOCSIS and contributions to industry standards. It is also an accredited TIP lab for fronthaul—one of only a few in the world.

In this lab, there are environments for Wi-Fi research and OpenWi-Fi platform development.

The Wi-Fi research environment provides RF mitigation and isolation capabilities to enable the research and development of Wi-Fi technologies. The lab’s RF capabilities offer 60 dB of protection from outside interference, with the addition of two RF isolation tents of 180 dB for a total of 240 dB of protection. The lab supports access to external networks, including the internet, through ethernet and a DOCSIS platform.

Because Wi-Fi is the last leg of network connectivity in most deployments, research of existing and new technologies is paramount. This environment provides a facility where various deployment scenarios can be replicated—without external RF interference or the need for an RF chamber.

In this Telecom Infra Project (TIP)-compliant environment, experts conduct development and conformance activities for OpenWiFi. This community-developed open-source platform lowers the cost of developing and operating Wi-Fi networks and accelerates the innovation of services. 

OpenWiFi is an initiative of the Open Converged Wireless (OCW) software project group under TIP, a diverse community that includes hundreds of participating companies, from service providers and technology partners to systems integrators and other connectivity stakeholders. In the past, every service provider or vendor has had to build the Wi-Fi stack from scratch for specific hardware. OpenWiFi provides an open implementation of the stack, along with certified hardware on which the stack can run. It provides open APIs that enable device management from the cloud.

The Cloud Native capabilities offer a showcase for future access network infrastructure and explores the possibilities unleashed by fully virtualized cloud-native architectures. In this lab, private, public and edge cloud infrastructure come together to bring hyperscale technologies and capabilities to the access network. Cloud Native capabilities enables testing and collaboration on a host of edge use cases in partnership with experts ranging from traditional cloud providers to emerging edge application developers.

The Security Lab  identifies and mitigates security threats to the access network.  In this lab, we demonstrate, analyze and develop innovative solutions.

This lab supports research efforts, up to 110 GHz. This includes performance evaluation of 4G/5G wireless access (emulated by test equipment). This capability could support the calibration of access system simulations (e.g., 5G Fixed Wireless Access). The lab also supports RF front-end performance evaluation and channel sounding characterization, including modeling, for complex propagation channels (e.g., non-line-of-sight, outdoor-to-indoor).

In this lab, our experts use sophisticated machine learning (ML) models that leverage intentionally engineered and governed data pipelines to help operators anticipate raw customer needs and evolve their services around them. This lab helps leverage contextualized, relevant data that augments and supports decision-making on demand. It creates software that identifies the nature of flows in the network, managing performance proactively and evolving to a fully virtualized network.