Release Notes#

This page details new features, bug fixes, performance improvements, limitations, and documentation updates by release.

ARC-OTA Release 1.7 (January 2026)#

GPU (Jetson AGX) accelerated soft-UE: Support for 30 MHz RF BW. Limited data rates (30/30 Mbps DL/UL).
Multi-UE support: DL and UL traffic to 100 UEs (using UE simulator over eCPRI)
UL Heavy TDD Pattern (DSUUU): OTA validation with OAI L2+
Data Lake:
- Real-time gNB I/Q sample capture from 4 cells
- Real-time soft UE data collection enables correlation across gNB and UE.
- Data is accessible to E3 agent and in RAM database for use by dApps Framework.
- The system can be configured to not capture data in the RAM database if the data is only to be consumed by the E3 agent.
- MAC PDUs are now captured even when PUSCH CRC fails.
Aerial CUDA-accelerated RAN software 25-3
OAI gNB SW: ARC1.7_integration branch (2025.w46 baseline)

Multiple UE support: Aggregated throughput may be low when scheduling multiple UEs simultaneously. Throughput occasionally drops to zero after running traffic with multiple UEs for some time. The current workaround is to restart the test.
SRS is only supported when PUSCH is simultaneously transmitted by the UE. SRS operation with 2L UL or operation with many UEs may have stability and performance issues after some time.

4T4R O-RUs
- WNC 1220
- WNC 3210
Multi-UE support
- 55 UEs attach and ping (UE simulator over eCPRI)
- 2 UEs traffic
Process SRS samples received from RU for use by L2 (4T4R; cabled)
Aerial Data Lake: Real-time I/Q sample capture from 2 cells
- This enables real-time capture of samples to DRAM for use in real-time processing.
  - Previously, real-time samples were captured to SSD and only enabled offline processing, such as for model training or visualization.
- Real-time processed samples can now be used by algorithms to perform closed-loop actions on L1/L2 with low latency.
Aerial CUDA-accelerated RAN software 25-2
OAI gNB SW: ARC1.6_integration branch (2025.w29 baseline)

TDD pattern: DDDDD DSUUU
MIMO layers
- DL: 4 layers
- UL: 1 layer
Single cell peak throughput
- 1 UE:
  - DL: ~1.2 Gbps
  - UL: ~126 Mbps
- 2 UEs:
  - DL: ~1.4 Gbps
  - UL: ~75 Mbps
2 cell aggregated peak throughput (1 UE per cell)
- DL: ~1.4 Gbps
- UL: ~180 Mbps

There are connection drops after running iPerf traffic for some time. The UE will re-initiate the connection autonomously.
Data stalls with traffic to multiple UEs: Throughput occasionally drops to zero after running traffic with multiple UEs for some time. The current workaround is to restart the test.

Tip

For additional context, you can also review the artifacts in the 2024.w21+ARC1.5 branch.

Note

The Grace Hopper platform requires OAI CN version 2024-June.

MIMO layers
- DL: 2 layers -> 4 layers
Peak throughput
- SMC-GH
  DL: ~460Mbps -> ~1.03Gbps
  
  UL: ~112Mbps -> ~125Mbps
- Dell R750 / Gigabyte Edge E251-U70
Multi-L2 (2 Cell) throughput
- SMC-GH
  DL: ~700Mbps (per Cell)
  
  UL: ~105Mbps (per Cell)

Full support for master gitlab repo gitlab.eurecom.fr/oai/ making it available for use, modification and distribution. Refer to the Licensing page for the OAI license.
- OAI_Aerial private branch is deprecated and will no longer be maintained.
Developer extension - Sterling k8 service management and monitoring (refer to this document for more details)
Updated OAI branch 2024.w15 with a standalone patch (w15.4).

Support for the Dell R750 platform to host gNB
Support for NVIDIA Converged Accelerators A100X
Continued support for Gigabyte Edge E251-U70 with NVIDIA discrete cards A100 GPU, CX6-DX SmartNIC
OAI_Aerial_v2.2.1 updated to OAI_Aerial_v2.2.2

Kernel cmdline configuration updated.
Updates to the core assignment in the Aerial configuration.
Updates to PTP and phc2sys core assignment.
Changes to phc2sys cmdline.
Changes to the L2 Docker run cmd to use all non-isolated cores.
Changes to the L2 configuration, max DL MCS defaults to 25.
Removal of unnecessary ORU firmware installation step because of Foxconn firmware default updates.
OAI_Aerial_v2.0 updated to OAI_Aerial_v2.2.1 throughout.

256 QAM is not supported on ARC-OTA. You must disable 256 QAM support by issuing the following command at the gNB command license:
--gNBs.[0].force_256qam_off