ARA Resource Specification

Resources in ARA are specified using the following three attributes:

  1. Site: The location/site where the resource resides.

  2. Resource Type: Represents the domain where the resource is used for. In ARA, the resources are classified into three types.

    1. AraRAN: Access network resources.

    2. AraHaul: Backhaul resources.

    3. Compute: Compute resources.

  3. Device Type: Indicates the type of device under each resource type. For example, AraRAN devices include Base Station and nUser Equipment.

The specification of currently deployed resources are provided in the following table.

Serial No.

Resource Name

Site

Resource Type

Device Type

1

DataCenter-Compute-000

Data Center

Compute

Compute Node

2

WilsonHall-BS-000

Wilson Hall

AraRAN

Base Station

3

AgronomyFarm-BS-000

Agronomy Farm

AraRAN

Base Station

4

CurtissFarm-BS-000

Curtiss Farm

AraRAN

Base Station

5

ResearchPark-BS-000

Research Park

AraRAN

Base Station

6

Ames-UE-000

Ames

AraRAN

User Equipment

7

CurtissFarm-UE-000

Curtiss Farm

AraRAN

User Equipment

8

KitchenFarm-UE-000

Kitchen Farm

AraRAN

User Equipment

9

AgronomyFarm-UE-000

Agronomy Farm

AraRAN

User Equipment

10

AgronomyFarm-UE-001

Agronomy Farm

AraRAN

User Equipment

11

AgronomyFarm-UE-002

Agronomy Farm

AraRAN

User Equipment

The spatial distribution of the ARA is shown in the following map.

ARA Resource Technical Specification

AraRAN

As mentioned in ARA Infrastructure, AraRAN is equipped with different wireless technologies including Software Defined Radios, Massive MIMO, and COTS 5G solutions. Detailed specification of different AraRAN components are provided below.

Software Defined Radios

  • Base Station: The SDR BSes are realized using NI USRP N320 radios with operating frequency 3 MHz to 6 GHz with allowable instantaneous bandwidth of 200 MHz. The SDR supports standalone (embedded) or host-based (network streaming) operation. The master clock rates include 200, 245.76, and 250 MS/s. The SDR is equipped with Xilinx Zynq-7100 SoC Dual core ARM Cortex-A9@800 MHz and builtin GPSDO.

    We use CommScope SS-65M-R2 4-port sector antenna with average gain of 18 dBi (4300-3600MHz).

    The RF front-end operates on frequency band 3400-3600 MHz TDD with working bandwidth of 100 MHz. The maximum output power is 40 dBm and LNA gain of 25 dB. The automatic gain control is up to the given maximum output power.

  • User Equipment: The SDR UE is equipped with NI USRP B210, first fully integrated two channel USRP device with continuous RF coverage from 70 MHz - 6 GHz. It supports full duplex MIMO (2 Tx and 2 Rx) operation up to 56 MHz of real-time bandwidth (61.44 MS/s quadrature). The device supports GNU Radio and OpenBTS support through the open source USRP Hardware Driver (UHD). For advanced users, the SDR has open and reconfigurable Spartan 6 XC6SLX 150 FPGA.

    We use 1 x Laird OC69421 direct mount omnidirectional antenna with gain of 5 dBi (3300-4200 MHz) and horizontal and vertical plane 3 dB bandwidth of 360 degrees and 100 degrees, respectively.

    The RF front-end UE booster operates on the frequency band 3400-3600 MHz TDD with working bandwidth 100 MHz. The maximum output power is 30 dBm and LNA gain of 12 dB. The automatic gain control is up to the given maximum output power.

Skylark

  • Base Station: The base station consists of a Central Unit (CU), Distributed Unit (DU), and three Radio Units (RUs), one for each sector. Each RU has 7 radios and each radio is connected to a cross-polarized antenna having horizontal and vertical polarization. That is, each RU has 14x antennas per RU which makes a total of 42 antennas for three RUs at the BS covering 360 degrees cell area. The DU can support up to 6 RUs, making total antenna count of 84. However, we deployed 3 RUs in Phase-1. The RUs are powered via a Power Distribution Unit (PDU) and are connected to the DU via FDU.

  • Customer Premises Equipment (CPE): At present, six Skylark CPEs are deployed and 14 more CPEs are to be deployed in Phase-1. Each CPE has one radio that connects to a dual-polarized directional antenna. Omni directional antennas have been successfully tested with the CPE, however, the performance at long range is better for the directional antenna. Fixed UE nodes are equipped with directional antenna mounted on a pole while the mobile UEs use omni directional antenna.

  • Frequency of Operation: Skylark uses TV White Space (TVWS) band, i.e., 470–700 MHz, with target operating band 539- 593 MHz. Both the BS and CPEs need to tune to same frequency in order to establish a connection. The bandwidth supported by the BS is 40 MHz.

AraHaul

The wireless backhaul of ARA primarily consists of microwave and millimeter wave links and free space optical link.