CyWi Testbed: Open-Source Wireless Innovation Lab for 5G and Beyond

Spring 2019 Presentation Slides

Over the last decade, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have been extensively studied due to the many advantages that interconnectivity can bring to everyday life. Despite many years of research, we have barely begun witnessing the capabilities of Industry 4.0 and IoT. These fields have not been penetrating our worlds as fast as previously predicted. IoT has the potential to be useful for a wide range of applications such as SmartAg, connected autonomous vehicles, smart grids, and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR). Powered with the capabilities of 5G mobile, IoT promises to change every aspect of our lives. But to expand the pace of innovation, researchers need access to state-of-the-art spaces to run experiments and gather real-world data.

Iowa State University has decided to explore this field by developing the CyWi lab. This lab will consist of a multi-node wireless testbed located on the Iowa State campus. As seen above in Figure 1, the testbed will have many use cases for students and researchers alike. Users will be able to freely run their custom experiments via remote access. Experiments can range widely but will include performance analysis, cyber security demonstrations, and protocol testing. CyWi will feature OpenAirInterface, an innovation platform for the standardization of 5G mobile. Popular IoT protocols such as Bluetooth Low Energy and Zigbee will also be available for research. Our hope is that providing a free and open-source research environment to the world will stimulate faster innovation in wireless communications.