ARA-OTIC is an O-RAN Open Testing and Integration Centre (OTIC) hosted by the Center for Wireless, Communities, and Innovation (WiCI) at Iowa State University (ISU). Leveraging ARA, the NSF Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) project on rural broadband, ARA-OTIC focuses on advancing the frontier of O-RAN through research and open-source initiatives, and it facilitates O-RAN adoption via real-world evaluation, demonstration, and pilot of O-RAN systems with applications in the loop.
Besides typical OTIC facilities, ARA-OTIC provides an at-scale, field-deployed experimental infrastructure for research and innovation in far-edge wireless systems and their applications in precision agriculture, community services, and so on. In particular, ARA-OTIC features the first-of-its-kind, real-world deployment of long-range, high-capacity wireless x-haul and access platforms in agriculture and rural settings, ranging from the state-of-the-art crop and livestock farms to rural cities and including user equipment such as agriculture vehicles, robots, drones, sensors, as well as public safety vehicles and facilities. With wireless x-haul platforms operating at the 11 GHz, 71-86 GHz, and 194 THz bands and offering communication capacities up to 160 Gbps at distances up to 15 Km, the ARA x-haul exemplifies low-cost, high-capacity middle-mile solutions connecting remote rural communities and agriculture farms to the nearest wired Internet backbone. With 5G-and-beyond Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems operating at the 460-776 MHz, 3.4-3.6 GHz, and 27.5-28.35 GHz bands and with 14, 192, and 384 antenna elements per sector, respectively, the ARA radio access network (RAN) exemplifies massive MIMO wireless access platforms that offer high capacity and large cell radius through beamforming, thus reducing the required spatial density of RAN base stations and cost of rural wireless. Besides the aforementioned large-scale outdoor wireless infrastructure and the associated edge and cloud computing resources, ARA-OTIC also operates an indoor sandbox for testing and integration purposes.
ARA-OTIC Platform for Integration and Testing
ARA-OTIC Testing Architecture
ARA-OTIC Testing Equipment Portfolio
- Support beyond 5G testing with scalable UE emulation
- Support use cases such as Open RAN, NTN, MU-MIMO, eMBB, URLLC, Private 5G, Security, Massive IoT, MilComm
- Functional, Capacity, Performance, Regression and E2E testing
- O-DU emulation for O-RU conformance, DPT, E2E, Capacity and certification
- Real-time NETCONF, eCPRI C/U-plane and 7.2x IQ traffic generation and validation
- PTP/SyncE synchronization and embedded Open Fronthaul analysis
- Scalable PVT360A integration for rapid multi-port RF testing
- Single-box VSG/VSA for 5G NR FR1, O-RU and RF component testing
- VSE-based EVM, ACLR, modulation, and physical-layer analysis
- Integrates with VIAVI TM500 for automated O-RU conformance and RF validation
- Detecting C/U-plane, S-plane, and M-plane flows
- Analyzing PTP synchronization and C/U-plane timing
- Inspecting eCPRI/Open Fronthaul packet content and bandwidth
- Displaying M-plane sessions and interacting with the O-RU through an M-plane client
- Monitoring optical, Ethernet, RE/RB utilization, and configuration parameters
- Full-wraparound O-DU testing with F1-C/F1-U O-CU emulation
- N1/N2/N3 connectivity toward the 5G Core
- Functional, performance, and capacity testing across 5G SA/NSA scenarios
VIAVI TeraVM Core Emulator and RDA
- Configurable 4G/5G core emulation for full-wraparound SA/NSA gNB testing
- Realistic application traffic generation with Stateful voice, video, IoT, and data traffic for each emulated UE
- Integrated QoS/QoE, throughput, latency, and mobility validation
- 5G SA/NSA Core and IMS emulation for N1/N2/N3/N6 and VoNR/ViNR validation
VIAVI T-BERD/MTS-5800-100G Platform
- Field-ready, dual-port validation and troubleshooting of converged Ethernet/IP networks from 10 Mbps to 100G
- Mobile,Fiber-link and backhaul characterization, validation, troubleshooting, and synchronization testing
- TEM-based timing and synchronization testing
- Scripted workflows with repeatable procedures and clear pass/fail results
- Automated 3GPP SCAS and end-to-end system-security validation
- Validates security across the 5G Core, RIC, xApps, and Open RAN components
- DoS, fuzzing, protocol, port-scanning, and O-Cloud resilience testing
- Integrity, ciphering, security-key, SBOM, and Open Fronthaul security checks
VIAVI Automation Management and Orchestration System (VAMOS)
- Automated KPI/log analysis, verdict validation, and O-RAN reporting
- Centralized test campaigns across VIAVI and third-party tools
- Zero-touch scheduling, configuration, execution, and result collection
5G xHaul Timing Aware O-RAN Switch & PTP Grandmaster
- Supports O-RAN LLS-C1–C4 and C/U-, S-, and M-plane fronthaul traffic
- GNSS-based PTP GM/BC/TC with SyncE and sub-nanosecond timestamping
- Wire-speed 1/10/25GbE transport with TSN, QoS, and resilient path protection
- Advanced OAM, throughput monitoring, traffic mirroring, and fronthaul troubleshooting
Cisco Catalyst 9500 Fronthaul Switch & Dell PowerSwitch S5224F-ON (Mgmt Switch)
- High-throughput 10/25/40/100GbE fronthaul and management connectivity
- IEEE 1588v2 PTP for precise RAN timing distribution
- VLAN, QoS, network segmentation, and Layer 2/3 traffic management
- Supports scalable LLS-C1, LLS-C2, and LLS-C3 laboratory topologies with dense server and test-tool connectivity
Oscilloquartz OSA 5405-O Outdoor Grandmaster
- Integrated GNSS receiver and antenna delivering PRTC-A precision synchronization within ±100 ns of UTC for rugged outdoor edge applications.
- Supports IEEE 1588v2 and G.8265.1/G.8275.1/G.8275.2 PTP profiles
- IPv4/IPv6 multicast and unicast PTP with PTP/SyncE backup for resilient 5G and O-RAN timing
- Rugged outdoor smart antenna delivers PTP/NTP over Ethernet
- Primary GNSS-locked source for ARA-OTIC’s G.8275.1, domain-24 PTP timing hierarchy
- 4T4R n48 and n78 O-RU with 5 W per channel, support sleep modes and 100 MHz bandwidth
- O-RAN 7.2x Category A with 10 GbE eCPRI and C/U/S/M-plane support
- Supports multi-vendor interoperability, WG4 Conformance, Security, and End-to-end testing
LIONS XG8600 Fronthaul Gateway
- Aggregates uplink IQ traffic and distributes downlink IQ traffic over O-RAN 7.2x
- Connects eight O-RUs to one O-DU, expandable to 16 O-RUs through cascading
- Built-in GPS, PTP, and SyncE timing distribution for synchronized multi-RU operation
- Enables shared-cell coverage with fewer handovers for rural, campus, and mobility testing
- Real-time power monitoring for each outlet and the complete PDU
- Remote outlet switching, rebooting, scheduling, and power sequencing
- Web, SNMP, SSH, and CLI access for automated monitoring and control
- Eight managed outlets for component-level energy-efficiency evaluation
ARA-OTIC Platform Services
| ARA-OTIC O-RAN Testing Services supported by Industry-Leading Partners & Open-Source Platforms | |||
| Services | Deliverables | Testing Equipment | Test Category/Standard |
| Large-Scale UE & RAN Emulation | Emulation of thousands of UEs (2,048 provisioned, scalable to 10,000) under realistic mobility, fading, Carrier Aggregation, MU-MIMO and mixed-numerology conditions to stress-test O-CU/O-DU at deployment scale. | VIAVI TM500 UE and O-RU Emulator | ORAN TIFG Performance, Functional, Service, RIC enabled use case specific tests, E2E, Profile-based performance, Load and Stress, WG4 IOT, and CONF. |
| Realistic Application & Traffic Testing | Generation of stateful, real-world application traffic per emulated device to validate O-CU/O-DU behavior under production-like load and diverse traffic profiles. | VIAVI TeraVM Real Data Applications (RDA) | End-to-End Performance, Load & Stress |
| 5G Core & IMS Service-Layer Validation | End-to-end validation of 3GPP interfaces such as N1, N2, N3 and N6, VoNR and ViNR call flows and 5G SA/NSA service-layer behavior (scalable to 200,000 UEs support) | VIAVI TeraVM Core Emulator (with IMS Server) | E2E, Functional, Service-Layer |
| O-RU Conformance Testing | Full O-RAN WG4 Conformance test suite for vendor O-RUs over the Open Fronthaul LLS-7.2x interface, including M-plane and C/U-plane validation, with automated reporting. | VIAVI TM500 O-RU Tester + R&S PVT360A | O-RAN WG4 CONF, 3GPP TS 38.141 |
| O-DU Conformance Testing | Full O-RAN WG4 Conformance test suite for vendor O-DUs over the Open Fronthaul LLS-7.2x interface, including M-plane and C/U-plane validation, with automated reporting. | VIAVI TM500 as O-RU and UE Emulator and TeraVM RDA and Core Emulator | O-RAN WG4 CONF, 3GPP TS 38.141 |
| O-CU / O-DU & RIC Integration Testing | Conformance, interoperability, and performance validation of vendor O-CU and O-DU implementations, including F1 and E1 interface verification, Near-RT RIC integration, xApp behavior testing, E2 interface validation | VIAVI TeraVM O-CU Tester | O-RAN TIFG tests, WG5, WG3 (E2) |
| Real-Time Fronthaul/Xhaul Analysis & Troubleshooting | Real-time, per-packet visibility into Open Fronthaul M-plane, S-plane, and C/U-plane sessions, including fronthaul packet flows, timing accuracy, and link utilization. Adds PHY-layer observation of RE/RB resource grid usage from C/U-plane traffic to accelerate IOT and end-to-end integration and troubleshooting. | VIAVI NITRO Wireless XhaulAdvisor | WG4 IOT/CONF DLM Tests O-DU/O-RU |
| RF Signal Generation & O-RU RF Conformance | Precision vector signal generation and analysis for O-RU RF performance and conformance testing, fully automated with integrated test management. | Rohde & Schwarz PVT360A (with TM500 O-RU Tester) | FR1/FR2 TDD Conducted Signal Tests (UC Plane), S-plane, M-plane O-RAN WG4 CONF, 3GPP TS 38.141 |
| Precision Timing & Transport Verification | Portable Grandmaster Clock (GMC) reference for PTP/SyncE timing validation and handheld Ethernet/transport troubleshooting for on-site fronthaul and network verification/troubleshooting. | VIAVI MTS-5800 with Timing Module | ORAN WG4 IOT S-plane Timing (G.8275.1/G.8275.2), Transport |
| O-RAN Security Testing | End-to-end security validation across SMO, Non-RT and Near-RT RIC, O-CU, O-DU, and O-RU aligned with O-RAN Alliance WG11 security specifications. | VIAVI TeraVM Classic Security Test Suite / Security Auditor | 3GPP Security Assurance for E2E System, SMO, RICs, O-CU, O-DU, O-RU, etc |
| Open-Source RAN Reference & Research Platform | Vendor-neutral open-source protocol stacks for interoperability validation, research experiments, and academic collaboration. | OCUDU/srsRAN/OAI | IOT, Research, Reference Validation |
| Automated Test Execution & Reporting | Zero-touch scheduling, reconfigurable testbed orchestration, and AI/ML-driven execution of O-RAN test campaigns with customizable reporting, observability, smart test prioritization, and CI/CD pipeline integration. Deployable across bare-metal, private, and public cloud environments. | VIAVI VAMOS (Automation & Orchestration System) | Multi-Vendor Test Automation, Optimization, Orchestration & Analytics, Security compliance |
| Flexible Fronthaul Topology Support | Complete support for LLS-C1 through LLS-C3 fronthaul topologies with precision PTP timing infrastructure for any deployment scenario. | Dedicated GMC, Cisco Catalyst 9500, Dell PowerSwitch S5224F-ON, FibroLAN Falcon-RX Xhaul (Fronthaul and Management switches) | O-RAN WG4 CUS-Plane Synchronization Topologies (LLS-C1 / C2 / C3) |
| End-to-End O-RAN Validation Lifecycle | Single-facility coverage across IOT, Security, E2E (Performance, Functional, Services, RIC-enabled use case, Stress and load, Profile based), and Conformance testing, the complete O-RAN validation from components to deployment. | Integrated ARA OTIC Facility/ Open RAN Testbed | All O-RAN Test Categories |
ARA-OTIC Awards O-RAN Certificates and/or Badges
| Test Category | O-RAN Award Type | O-RAN Award Mark | RAT Under Test |
| E2E Performance, Functional, Service, RIC Use Cases, Stress/Load, and Profile-Based Tests | O-RAN End-to-End (E2E) Badge |  | 5G NR |
| Conformance CUS-M Planes (O-RU and O-DU) | O-RAN Certificate |  | 5G NR |
| Interoperability (IOT) – CUS Planes | O-RAN Interoperability (IOT) Badge |  | 5G NR |
| Security (3GPP Security Assurance, SMO, RICs, O-CU, O-DU, and O-RU) | O-RAN End-to-End (E2E) Badge | | 5G NR |
ARA-OTIC Contributions and Collaborations in the Open RAN Ecosystem
ARA-OTIC contributes to the Open RAN ecosystem through research, integration, testing, and validation activities, including O-RAN ALLIANCE Global PlugFests and NTIA-funded initiatives under the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. The facility collaborates with network operators, RAN component vendors, system integrators, test and measurement vendors, and open-source RAN communities to advance multi-vendor interoperability, O-RAN conformance, end-to-end system performance, and security validation, supporting the advancement of commercial readiness and scalable Open RAN deployment.
Acceleration of Compatibility and Commercialization for Open RAN Deployments (ACCoRD)
ARA-OTIC serves as a neutral host testbed for Open RAN integration, testing, and validation within the Acceleration of Compatibility and Commercialization for Open RAN Deployments (ACCoRD), a $42.3M initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce NTIA Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. The project is led by AT&T and Verizon, with NTT DOCOMO, Reliance Jio, and Rakuten Mobile contributing as MNO partners and leads, and brings together various North American OTICs, radio access equipment suppliers, and industry stakeholders to accelerate Open RAN commercialization through standardized testing frameworks, interoperability & conformance validation, security assessment, and advanced evaluation methodologies.
Within ACCoRD, ARA-OTIC contributes both Open RAN testing capabilities and federated testbed infrastructure. ARA-OTIC has deployed ACCoRD’s Cloud Federated Lab as a Service (CFLaaS) components, connecting the ARA test environment with other participating ACCoRD labs and supporting distributed lab supervision and monitoring, federated identity and authenticated access, and shared scheduling of test resources across consortium labs.
ARA-OTIC’s ACCoRD testing and validation activities include:
- O-RU and O-DU Open Fronthaul conformance testing across C/U-, M-, and S-plane functionality
- Multi-vendor O-DU and O-RU interoperability testing over the Open Fronthaul LLS-7.2x interface
- End-to-end functional, performance, and scalability evaluation
- O-RAN security testing and system-level security validation
- Open Fronthaul transport, synchronization, and timing validation using PTP/SyncE and packet-timing characterization
- Large-scale UE, traffic, and service emulation using commercial RAN and core-network test platforms
- Development of Open RAN test methodologies and test cases for deployment-relevant evaluation of performance, energy efficiency, mobility, and multi-vendor system behavior, including vertical-specific scenarios such as Ag Intelligence, etc.
- Deployment and operation of ACCoRD CFLaaS infrastructure for secure federated connectivity, supervision, monitoring, and access across participating consortium members under role-based authorization.
Consortium Lead Members: AT&T and Verizon
Consortium Consulting Members: NTT DOCOMO, Reliance Jio, and Rakuten Mobile
Test Tools Partners: VIAVI and Keysight
University Labs (Neutral Host Test Locations): Iowa State University, University of Texas at Dallas, Virginia Tech, Northeastern University, Rutgers University
Architecture for Massive-MIMO Open RAN Energy-efficient Devices (ArMORED)
ARA-OTIC supports the Architecture for Massive-MIMO Open RAN Energy-efficient Devices (ArMORED) project, a $10.1M initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce NTIA Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. Skylark Wireless is leading the project and developing a prototype massive-MIMO O-RU incorporating Eridan’s Miracle 2T2R transceiver modules, which use a Switch-Mode Direct Polar transmitter with gallium nitride power stages to synthesize the waveform directly at power rather than through a linear amplifier, which targets high power efficiency and transmit linearity in a single design. Iowa State University, through ARA-OTIC and the ARA wireless living lab, leads the energy-efficiency research, integration, testing, and field evaluation of the prototype O-RU across the ARA footprint.
Within ArMORED, ARA-OTIC provides integrated testing and validation capabilities to characterize the prototype O-RU under configurable and deployment-relevant operating conditions. The combined ARA-OTIC and ARA wireless living lab infrastructure supports repeatable and field-based evaluation using commercial test and measurement platforms, configurable radio and channel conditions, UE behavior, traffic and service profiles, mobility scenarios, and rural deployment environments, enabling comprehensive assessment of O-RU performance and energy efficiency across realistic operating conditions.
ARA-OTIC’s ArMORED activities include:
- Joint characterization of energy consumption and network performance to quantify energy-efficiency tradeoffs across radio configurations, traffic loads, and operating conditions.
- Integration and interoperability testing of the prototype O-RU with complementary Open RAN components and end-to-end 5G NR systems, and Massive-MIMO beamforming and spatial multiplexing performance evaluation.
- Radio and system performance evaluation under configurable channel, UE, traffic, mobility, and service conditions, from repeatable indoor measurement through outdoor field trials.
- Coverage, capacity, and scalability evaluation of the prototype O-RU in realistic rural Open RAN deployment scenarios.
O-RAN ALLIANCE Global PlugFests Activities
ARA-OTIC has contributed to O-RAN ALLIANCE Global PlugFests since 2024, progressing from end-to-end integration and cross-laboratory repeatability evaluation of open-source RAN implementations to multi-vendor, multi-O-RU Open Fronthaul integration with commercial radios. Across successive cycles, ARA-OTIC has conducted end-to-end system validation, Open Fronthaul interoperability testing, and performance and mobility characterization, using commercial test and measurement platforms in deployment-oriented scenarios for rural and agricultural use cases.
| ARA-OTIC O-RAN ALLIANCE Global PlugFests Activities | |||
| O-RAN Global PlugFest | ARA-OTIC Technical Contributions | Platforms | Partners |
| Spring 2024 | End-to-end integration and cross-laboratory repeatability evaluation of an open-source O-DU/O-CU platform using commercial RAN test and emulation systems. Covered 5G SA registration and deregistration, UL and DL performance, network slicing, and TIFG end-to-end mobility scenarios across collaborating lab environments. | OAI O-DU/O-CU, Keysight and VIAVI (UE & O-RU SIM), Open5GS, and ARA-OTIC fronthaul infrastructure | UNH-IOL, ARA-OTIC, OpenAirInterface, Keysight, VIAVI |
| Fall 2024 | End-to-end deployment, performance, and scalability evaluation of the OAI O-DU/O-CU integrated and synchronized with Keysight RAN and core emulation. Included TIFG 5.3 5G SA UE registration and deregistration, multi-UE attach and detach validation with concurrent ICMP and UDP traffic, and downlink throughput evaluation across cell-center, cell-middle, and cell-edge UE conditions. | Keysight CoreSim, UeSIM & RuSIM, and AirMosaic, OAI integrated O-DU/O-CU over O-RAN LLS-7.2x Open Fronthaul, ARA-OTIC fronthaul infrastructure | Keysight, OpenAirInterface, ARA-OTIC |
| Spring 2025 | End-to-end validation of Multi-vendor end-to-end integration and interoperability testing of a commercial O-RU with an open-source O-DU/O-CU in an LLS-C3 configuration, with COTS UE attachment and PDU session establishment. TIFG end-to-end DL and UL peak throughput test cases 6.2 and 6.3 passed. | LIONS 4T4R O-RU, srsRAN O-DU/O-CU, VIAVI TM500 (Lite), Open5GS, ARA-OTIC servers and fronthaul infrastructure | LIONS Technology, VIAVI Solutions, ARA-OTIC |
| Fall 2025 | Extended the Spring 2025 setup to Multi-O-RU Open Fronthaul integration for rural and agricultural scenarios. Deployed two LIONS O-RUs and the LIONS Fronthaul Gateway with srsRAN O-DU/O-CU, integrated the gateway for multi-O-RU aggregation, and established O-DU to fronthaul gateway interoperability. Characterized the PTP and timing parameter requirements across the O-DU, fronthaul gateway, and O-RU chain. | 2x LIONS 4T4R O-RUs, LIONS 5G Fronthaul Gateway, srsRAN O-DU/O-CU, VIAVI TM500 and TeraVM RDA and Core EM, ARA-OTIC fronthaul infrastructure | LIONS Technology, VIAVI Solutions, ARA-OTIC |
| Spring 2026 | OCUDU-based multi-O-RU Open Fronthaul deployment for agricultural intelligence scenarios. Established interoperability among the OCUDU, the LIONS Fronthaul Gateway, and multiple O-RUs, with configuration of VIAVI core and RAN, validated backhaul and Open Fronthaul connectivity, PTP stability and boundary clock validation, fronthaul timing window adjustment, and O-RU RF and UC-plane transmission validation. | 2x LIONS 4T4R O-RUs, LIONS 5G Fronthaul Gateway, OCUDU O-CU/O-DU/aggregated gNB (both deployment), VIAVI TM500 and TeraVM RDA and Core EM, ARA-OTIC fronthaul infrastructure | LIONS Technology, VIAVI Solutions, ARA-OTIC |
ARA-OTIC Lab-as-a-Service
Bring your Open RAN innovation to ARA-OTIC to integrate across vendors, validate with confidence, and accelerate its path to scalable deployment.
01
Bring Your Device/Solution
Bring your own O-RU, O-DU, O-CU, RIC, software platform.
02
Choose Your Test Resources
Select the test platforms, interfaces, configurations, and scenarios that match your objectives
03
Integrate and Validate
Configure the environment and evaluate interoperability, conformance, performance, synchronization, security, and end-to-end operation
04
Advance with Confidence
Turn test evidence into actionable improvements and advance toward certification, badging, and deployment readiness
Together, let’s shape an open, interoperable wireless future that accelerates innovation and empowers communities
Contact: otic@arawireless.org