n48(CBRS) O-RU

The Rice University Wireless group has led the effort to enable interoperability of the NVIDIA ARC-OTA software with the Foxconn RPQN-4800E CBRS RU. Working with both teams at NVIDIA and Foxconn, the Rice team has successfully tested the ARC-OTA platform with the CBRS RU in the lab operating in a 100 MHz band (3.6-3.7 GHz) and has achieved a throughput of 250 Mbps in the downlink and 50 Mbps in the uplink. The conformance testing has been done with a Quectel RG520N UE module and the OnePlus Nord 5G handset in an indoor lab environment with more than one hour of stable connectivity.

This is an important step to help accelerate advanced 5G and 6G research and innovation with ARC-OTA experimental networks in the United States. The Citizen Broadband Radio Services (CBRS) spectrum band is an integral part of 5G deployment in the United states. This band, covering 3.55-3.7 GHz, has been opened by the FCC for shared access with three tiers of users: 1) Incumbent, 2) Priority Access License (PAL), and 3) General Authorized Access (GAA), where the last two tiers use a Spectrum Access System (SAS) database to coordinate their usage with the incumbents. While the incumbent users are the government bodies, the PAL access must be acquired through FCC spectrum auctions or through sublicensing in secondary markets which is costly and limited to 5G operators. The GAA license, however, can be used at times and locations where the incumbent and PAL users are inactive. Any GAA usage must be registered with the SAS database to coordinate with users of all three tiers. Given the shared access nature of CBRS and the GAA option, the CBRS band can be ideal for 5G research and development.