Infrastructure
NSLab operates an end-to-end experimental infrastructure covering radio access, optical and packet networks and advanced computing: a commercial O-RAN deployment, prototyping platforms, a next-generation optical access network, 400G switching and a cloud-edge cluster with GPUs and DPUs. It is used for research, field trials and test-before-invest services for companies.
The laboratory. A live 360° view is shown here when the camera is on.
Radio Access Networks
Commercial O-RAN network by BubbleRAN
A full-fledged, fully programmable Open RAN deployment used for end-to-end service optimisation experiments.
- 2 small cells LiteOn, 100 MHz at 3.8 GHz
- Near-real-time and non-real-time RAN Intelligent Controllers (RIC) with xApps and rApps
- Service Management and Orchestration (SMO)
- 8 user terminals
- Integrated edge computing
Software-defined radio prototyping platforms
Open-source 4G/5G stacks on high-end SDR hardware for physical-layer and protocol research.
- 13 x USRP NI 2954R / Ettus X310, 160 MHz bandwidth
- Lime SDRs
- OpenAirInterface and srsRAN
Packet Network Infrastructures
400G packet switching and SDN equipment
High-capacity programmable switching fabric for the laboratory network.
- 400G switches by Edgecore
- SDN network equipment (P4 and OpenFlow)
Data Processing Units for 400 Gbps traffic processing
NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs for in-network processing and security offloading at line rate.
- 2 x BlueField-3 DPU, 1 x 400G port
- 2 x BlueField-3 DPU, 2 x 200G ports
NetFPGA prototyping platform
FPGA boards for line-rate packet processing and hardware prototyping.
- 3 x 10G NetFPGA boards
Advanced Computing
Cloud-edge computing cluster
More than 15 physical servers running cloud, edge and distributed-AI workloads on Kubernetes.
- > 15 physical servers
- GPUs from NVIDIA and Intel
- Cloud computing, edge computing and distributed AI
AI-at-the-edge boards for industrial applications
Embedded platforms for AI computer vision and cybersecurity at the edge, used in industrial and environmental deployments.
- Edge AI boards (NVIDIA Jetson class)
- AI computer vision
- Cybersecurity at the edge
Test & Measurement
Test and measurement up to 400G
Multi-protocol traffic generation and analysis from 10G to 400G.
- VeEX MPA multi-protocol analyser, up to 400G
- VeEX MPA multi-protocol analyser, up to 100G
GW Instek GPM-8310 power analysers
Digital power meters for precise measurement of the energy consumption of network and computing equipment under test.
- 2 x GW Instek GPM-8310 digital power meter
- Voltage, current, active/apparent power, power factor and energy logging
- Used to profile RAN, DPU and server power consumption
Immersive interaction & robotics
Emotiv EPOC X and EPOC Flex EEG headsets
Wireless EEG headsets for brain-computer interface research: real-time acquisition of brain signals used for networked BCI, telepresence and hands-free control of robots and drones.
- Emotiv EPOC X, 14-channel wireless EEG
- Emotiv EPOC Flex, up to 32 channels with configurable electrode placement
- Real-time streaming to edge and cloud processing pipelines
Unitree quadruped robot
Legged robot platform for physical-AI experiments: on-board perception, remote control over 5G/O-RAN and edge offloading of AI workloads.
- Unitree quadruped robot with on-board sensors and computing
- Teleoperation over mobile networks, including brain-computer and haptic control
- Testbed for edge AI, digital twins and remote maintenance scenarios
Meta Quest 3 headsets
Mixed-reality headsets used for immersive applications, telepresence and networked XR experiments over 5G and edge computing.
- 4 x Meta Quest 3
- WebXR and OpenXR applications, including the SEASON virtual museum demo
- Edge-offloaded rendering and multi-user XR over O-RAN
Optical Networks
Next-generation optical access network
A commercial NG-PON2 / XG(S)-PON access network from Calix, used for software-defined access and RAN–optical integration.
- Calix OLT with 2 XG(S)-PON ports
- 4 Calix ONTs, 10G/2.5G
Coherent point-to-multipoint optics
Nokia coherent P2MP digital-subcarrier-multiplexing (DSCM) system for converged metro and access experiments.
- 3 x 400G XR hub modules
- 2 x NDU 200G
- 100G XR leaves
Polatis optical switch
All-optical circuit switch for reconfigurable testbed topologies.
- Polatis 6000, 32 x CC ports
Want to see more?
Laboratory of Optics and Photonics · INCIPICT
Our optical research continues at the Laboratory of Optics and Photonics, which operates a field-deployed space-division multiplexing testbed with multi-core and few-mode fibers under the streets of L'Aquila.