Section: New Software and Platforms

Platforms

Reproducible research laboratory (${\mathrm{R}}^2\mathrm{lab}$)

Scientific evaluation of network protocols requires for experiment results to be reproducible before they can be considered as valid. This is particularly difficult to obtain in the wireless networking domain, where characteristics of wireless channels are known to be variable, unpredictable and hardly controllable.

We have built at Inria Sophia-Antipolis, in the last couple of years, an anechoic chamber, with RF absorbers preventing radio waves reflections and with a Faraday cage blocking external interferences. This lab, named ${\mathrm{R}}^2\mathrm{lab}$, represents an ideal environment for experiments reproducibility.

${\mathrm{R}}^2\mathrm{lab}$ has been operated for 2 years now, in the context of the FIT Equipment of Excellence project, and as such, it is now federated with the other testbeds that are part of the FIT initiative. This testbed is for the long-haul, and is scheduled to remain operational until at least 2020.

During 2016, our focus regarding ${\mathrm{R}}^2\mathrm{lab}$ has been set on the following aspects. First, we have deployed USRPs (Universal Software Radio Peripherals) together with hardware devices for controlling these USRP extensions. This is extremely interesting, as it considerably widens the fields of application for the tesbed. In particular, and that was our second angle for improvements this year, we have taken advantage of the USRP hardware to provide support for OpenAirInterface-based deployments in the chamber. That feature was demonstrated for example during the formal opening that took place on November 9 this year, where it was demonstrated how to set up a private LTE network in 3 minutes.

For more details see http://r2lab.inria.fr.