This project develops salsa (spectrally agile large-scale arrays), a wideband, spectrally agile and scalable radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) and transceiver for use in future commercial,…

This $9,960,960 federal Project Grant award from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (CFDA 11.038 - Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund Grant Program) supports the development of SALSA (Spectrally Agile Large-Scale Arrays), a wideband, spectrally agile, and scalable radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) and transceiver. The goal is to integrate the RFIC with antennas and a digital interface to create an open radio unit (O-RU) for the Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN), focusing on the 6-15 GHz frequency band.

Key project activities include: 1) designing and fabricating the RFIC; 2) developing modular and flexible massive MIMO software-defined radio platforms using the RFIC; 3) creating a spectrally agile, upper mid-band open-RU and integrating it into the O-RAN COSMOS testbed; and 4) demonstrating the system in spectrum sharing and adversarial settings. The project involves sub-awards to Princeton University, Rutgers University, and Nokia to support specific technical tasks.

Activities

The project has four key tasks: task 1. Design and fabrication of a monolithic, spectrally agile rfic in globalfoundries FD-SOI 22 NM platform that can cover the entire 6-15 GHZ band with high linearity, frequency hopping and programmable filtering; task 2. Development of modular and flexible massive multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) software-defined radio (SDR) platforms using the rfic modules as building blocks; task 3. Development of a spectrally agile, upper mid-band open-RU and integration of the O-RUS into the O-ran cosmos testbed. Task 4. Demonstration of the system in spectrum sharing and adversarial settings with a path for technology transition using the testbed.

Expected outcomes

As a capstone demonstration, when the outdoor cosmos (north american open testing and integration center [oitc] in NYC metro area/east) platform is available, the recipient will demonstrate the multi-frequency hopping link outside. The recipient expects to see a rich blocking environment as IT observed in its RAY tracing study. This will be the first comprehensive, frequency hopping system in frequency range (FR) 3 demonstrated outside.

Intended beneficiaries

Mobile network operators (MNOS), U.S. Defense operations and industry research subrecipient activities: princeton will be responsible for the design and testing of the transmission (TX) path development of the rfic. Rutgers will be responsible for the installation of the O-RU?S in the cosmos/O-TIC center. Nokia will be responsible for spectrum sharing use case, requirements, and capacity analysis, spectrum sensing and spectrum sharing algorithms, RU testing and RU product design for envisioned commercial RU. PI radio will be responsible for the design, manufacturing, and testing of the radio frequency module and the integration of the modules into the mimo platforms, driver development and technical documentation.