XG Testbed Portal Stroubles Creek

The transition to open and software-defined networks is driving demand for secure software used in Citizens Band Radio Service (CBRS). Researchers in the CCI network can get access to our outdoor testbed to conduct their studies.

CBRS (the 3.5 GHz band, referred to as the 3550-3700 MHz band), designed to promote shared band usage through a spectrum access system (SAS), features three tiers of access and authorization:

Incumbent access.
Priority access license (PAL).
General authorized access (GAA).

The Stroubles Creek outdoor testbed in Blackburgs, Va., a component of CCI’s xG testbed at the Arlington, Va., site, is an experimental network consisting of three software-defined radio-based 5G base stations operating in the CBRS band. It allows researchers to customize, reconfigure, and control software and hardware parameters, develop algorithms, and improve performance and efficiency.

Stroubles Creek overview — Stroubles Creek, approximately 12 miles long, runs through Blacksburg, the Virginia Tech campus, and Montgomery County, Virginia.

The deployment at Stroubles Creek focuses on research in the CBRS and spectrum-sharing ecosystem.

The CCI xG Testbed empowers the process of creating and launching next-generation mobile networks by leveraging open standards. It serves as a platform for experimentation, enabling the design and deployment of innovative technologies and solutions before they become available to the general market.

CCI grad assistants at Stroubles Creek — CCI graduate research assistants Asheesh Tripathi, left, and Oren Collaco, collect data to deploy a private mobile network near Stroubles Creek on Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus. The system, based on Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), allows researchers to use the CCI xG Testbed to test security solutions for mobile networks. Here, a commercial-grade CBRS antenna, enclosed in a white weatherproof plastic tube, is connected to a spectrum analyzer.

How it Works

The Stroubles Creek Outdoor CBRS deployment is an experimental CBRS network consisting of three Software defined Radios (SDR) based 5G base stations operating in the CBRS band (also called SDR CBSDs). Researchers use:

srsRAN 5G NR stack and Open 5GS core network for the 5G NR stand-alone CBRS network deployment.
Intel NUC to host Core and RAN software
A Commscope commercial CBRS Antenna.

Equipment is in weatherproof enclosures equipped with PiKVM and Ethernet PDU to remotely monitor and control the devices.

To ensure the CBRS band is vacant and to prevent interference to existing users, researchers conducted a spectrum survey around planned coverage areas for the network. Using a spectrum analyzer, a commercial antenna, and a gator vehicle, CCI graduate students traversed Stroubles Creek to collect spectrum power measurements in all 15 channels of the CBRS band.