Grid Software Defined Radio Network Testbed for Hybrid Measurement and Emulation

摘要

Traditional approaches to experimental characterization of wireless communication systems typically involves highly specialized and small-scale experiments to examine narrow aspects of each of these applications. We present the Drexel Grid SDR Testbed, a unified experimental framework to rapidly prototype and evaluate these diverse systems using: (i) field measurements to evaluate real time transceiver and channel-specific effects and (ii) network emulation to evaluate systems at a large scale with controllable and repeatable channels. We present the hardware and software architecture for our testbed, and describe how it is being used for research and education. Specifically, we show experimental network layer metrics in different application domains, and discuss future opportunities using this unique experimental capability.