Virginia Tech® home

Research Facilities

Wireless @ Virginia Tech research laboratories and facilities support research in the following areas:

  • Cognitive engine and policy reasoner (aka policy engine) development and testing for cognitive radios
  • Hardware and software development using advanced antenna techniques and signal processing methods for interference rejection, and position location
  • Simulation and analysis of wireless systems using real channel data and realistic channel models
  • Measurement, analysis, and simulation of propagation characteristics
  • Security in cognitive radio systems/networks and other wireless systems/networks
  • Testing and validation of cognitive radio software
  • Hospital Room of the Future (HRoF)
  • Spectrum sharing and RF coexistence analyses
  • Advances to LTE waveforms for DoD and public safety deployments
  • Modeling and management of heterogeneous networks

RF and Wireless Networking Laboratories

  • RF Eye Spectrum Scanning Node developed by CRFS Spectrum Intelligence Systems
  • Test and measurement instruments: signal generators, high-speed digitizing scopes, logic analyzers, spectrum analyzers, vector network analyzer, Tektronix arbitrary waveform generators and real-time spectrum analyzers, Rohde & Schwarz CMW500 eNode-B emulator and UE test instrument
  • DSP development systems: Keystone II Multicore DSP+ARM System on Chip and other systems from Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, Motorola, Xilinx, and Altera
  • Channel sounder: custom designed and built ultra-wideband channel sounder “VIPER”
  • Software resources: MATLAB, SPW, multiple C compilers, VHDL design tools, ADS, AutoCAD, PC board layout tools
  • Mobile networking resources: two wireless ad hoc network testbeds (dynamic switch and 802.11g), Android tablets, laptops and switches
  • SDR hardware: Ettus USRPs, BeagleBones, among others

Software Platforms

  • Cognitive radio test system (CRTS) is a test framework for testing cognitive radio networks that is being developed at WVT.
  • CORNET-3D is developed in collaboration with the Vision Lab and provides a set of waveform performance and spectrum visualization tools for the CORNET testbed.
  • Liquid DSP software library for quick waveform prototyping and testing was originally developed at WVT
  • REDHAWK has evolved from WVT's Open Source SCA Implementation for Embedded-Systems (OSSIE), the world's first open source C++ implementation of the SCA Core Framework
  • Networking research software, custom frameworks and open source and commercial networking research tools, including the FINS framework developed at Wireless @ Virginia Tech, NS2, NS3, Opnet, and OMNet++

CORNET Testbed

Virginia Tech’s Cognitive Radio Network (CORNET) is a university-wide testbed that enables research and education on software-defined radio (SDR), cognitive radio and dynamic spectrum access, among others.

It consists of 48 indoor SDR nodes, 14 fixed outdoor nodes and 6 mobile/portable units (O-CORNET), and a few LTE-capable nodes (LTE-CORNET*). Except for the mobile units, all other nodes can be remotely accessed and provide an opportunity for students and professionals around the world to learn about and experiment with new waveform designs, network deployments and spectrum/resource management algorithms, among others.

CORNET features common software-defined radio (SDR) hardware, including different models of universal software radio peripherals (USRPs) as well as custom hardware developed at Wireless @ Virginia Tech. The CORNET processing nodes run open-source software: Ubuntu with command line and GUI software development tools and compilers, GNU Software Radio, Liquid DSP, REDHAWK, OSSIE, and libLTE, among others.

COMWITS

The Cognitive Medical Wireless Testbed System (COMWITS) is funded through the Army Research Office. COMWITS will provide a unique opportunity for researchers to test innovative cognitive wireless communications, sensor networks, and biomedical applications under real world conditions to ensure essential intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. The testbed system can also being used by external researchers and industries through collaboration as well as undergraduate students through the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates program