| 34 | | Once the basic protocol or application concepts have been validated on the lab emulator platform, users can migrate their experiments to the field trial network which provides a configurable mix of both high-speed cellular (3G) and 802.11 wireless access in a real-world setting. |
| | 35 | ORBIT is a two-tier wireless network emulator/field trial designed to |
| | 36 | achieve reproducible experimentation, while also supporting realistic |
| | 37 | evaluation of protocols and applications. The RADIO GRID TESTBED which is |
| | 38 | central to the ORBIT facility uses a novel approach based on a 20x20 |
| | 39 | two-dimensional grid of programmable radio nodes which can be interconnected |
| | 40 | into specified topologies with reproducible wireless channel models. Once |
| | 41 | the basic protocol or application concepts have been validated on the radio |
| | 42 | grid emulator, users can migrate their experiments to the OUTDOOR ORBIT |
| | 43 | network which provides a configurable mix of both high-speed cellular |
| | 44 | (WiMAX, LTE) and 802.11 wireless access in a real-world setting. The ORBIT |
| | 45 | testbed also includes a number of SANDBOX networks used for debugging and |
| | 46 | controlled experimentation on specific aspects. |
| 36 | | Orbit is seeded by a $5.45M/4yr grant from the NSF under the Networking Research Testbeds (NRT) program. The project is a collaborative effort between several university research groups in the NY/NJ region: Rutgers, Columbia, and Princeton, along with industrial partners Lucent Bell Labs, IBM Research and Thomson. ORBIT is being developed and operated by [http://www.winlab.rutgers.edu/ WINLAB, Rutgers University]. A parallel set of [wiki:Documentation/About/cEWP experimental work packages (EWP)] was also funded by NSF in order to drive user requirements during the design of the testbed and also provide benchmarks for the usability and effectiveness of the testbed in performing different types of wireless experiments with ease. |
| | 48 | ORBIT was first funded in 2003 under the Network Research Testbeds (NRT) |
| | 49 | program (CNS-0335244) and subsequently under a follow-on grants CNS-0725053 |
| | 50 | and CNS-0958483. The ORBIT radio grid was first released to research users |
| | 51 | in Oct 2005, and since then has become a widely used community resource for |
| | 52 | evaluation of emerging wireless network architectures and protocols. As of |
| | 53 | 2014, there are over 1000 registered ORBIT users who have conducted a total |
| | 54 | of over ~200,000 experiment-hours on the radio grid testbed to date, with |
| | 55 | 55,701 experiment-hours served during 2013. The ORBIT testbed is also being |
| | 56 | used to support wireless aspects of the [http://www.geni.net GENI future Internet testbed], and the ORBIT Management Framework (OMF) |
| | 57 | is being used as one of the core control frameworks in GENI. Examples of specific |
| | 58 | experiments that have been run on the ORBIT testbed include multi-radio |
| | 59 | spectrum coordination, cognitive radio networks, dense !WiFi networks, |
| | 60 | cellular/WiFi multi-homing, vehicular and ad hoc network routing, |
| | 61 | storage-aware/delay tolerant networks, mobile content delivery, |
| | 62 | location-aware protocols, inter-layer wireless security, future Internet |
| | 63 | architecture, and mobile cloud computing. |
| 38 | | The testbed is available for remote or on-site access by other research groups nationally. Additional research partners and testbed equipment/software contributors are actively sought from both industry and academia. |
| | 65 | ORBIT is available for remote or on-site access by academic researchers both |
| | 66 | in the U.S. and internationally (prospective users should first send in an |
| | 67 | account signup request using the [http://www.orbit-lab.org/userManagement/registration registration form]). |
| | 68 | Users will have access to the following resources: |
| | 69 | * Range of radio resources including: !WiFi 802.11a/b/g 802.11n 802.11ac, Bluetooth (BLE), !ZigBee, Software Defined Radio (SDR) platforms (USRP, WARP, RTL-SDR, USRP N210, USRP X310) |
| | 70 | * Software defined networking (SDN) resources: NEC and Pronto switches, NetFPGA and NetFPGA-10G platforms |
| | 71 | * WiMAX and LTE basesations and clients |
| 40 | | The ORBIT testbed and facility is supported by, and supports the testing of many devices and various [wiki:Hardware hardware] and is operated by [wiki:Software software] which is used to run and control experimentation on the testbed. More information on both the hardware and software in ORBIT can be found on this site. For the basics of starting an experiment with the testbed refer to the [wiki:Documentation/CGettingStarted#Howtogetstarted getting started] document. more specific information on how to use the ORBIT testbed can be found in the [wiki:Documentation documentation] section. |
| | 73 | (Note that use of OUTDOOR nodes is by arrangement and generally requires physical presence of experimenters on the |
| | 74 | Rutgers campus). |
| | 75 | |
| | 76 | For the basics of starting an experiment with the testbed refer to the |
| | 77 | [wiki:Documentation/CGettingStarted#Howtogetstarted "Getting Started" document] and further details information on how to use the |
| | 78 | ORBIT testbed can be found in the [wiki:Documentation documentation section]. Additional |
| | 79 | information on both the [wiki:Hardware hardware] and [wiki:Software software] in ORBIT can also be found on |
| | 80 | this site. |
