= Open-Access Research Testbed for Next-Generation Wireless Networks (ORBIT) =



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[[Image(WikiStart:orbit-overview.jpg, 450 )]]

Welcome to the ORBIT (Open-Access Research Testbed for Next-Generation
Wireless Networks) Testbed Portal.

ORBIT is a two-tier wireless network emulator/field trial designed to
achieve reproducible experimentation, while also supporting realistic
evaluation of protocols and applications.  The RADIO GRID TESTBED which is
central to the ORBIT facility uses a novel approach based on a 20x20
two-dimensional grid of programmable radio nodes which can be interconnected
into specified topologies with reproducible wireless channel models.  Once
the basic protocol or application concepts have been validated on the radio
grid emulator, users can migrate their experiments to the OUTDOOR ORBIT
network which provides a configurable mix of both high-speed cellular
(WiMAX, LTE) and 802.11 wireless access in a real-world setting.  The ORBIT
testbed also includes a number of SANDBOX networks used for debugging and
controlled experimentation on specific aspects.

ORBIT was first funded in 2003 under the Network Research Testbeds (NRT)
program (CNS-0335244) and subsequently under a follow-on grants CNS-0725053, CNS-0958483 and CNS-1513110. The ORBIT radio grid was first released to research users
in Oct 2005, and since then has become a widely used community resource for
evaluation of emerging wireless network architectures and protocols. As of
2014, there are over 1000 registered ORBIT users who have conducted a total
of over ~200,000 experiment-hours on the radio grid testbed to date, with
55,701 experiment-hours served during 2013. The ORBIT testbed is also being
used to support wireless aspects of the [http://www.geni.net  GENI], and the ORBIT Management Framework (OMF) 
is being used as one of the core control frameworks in GENI.  Examples of specific
experiments that have been run on the ORBIT testbed include multi-radio
spectrum coordination, cognitive radio networks, dense !WiFi networks,
cellular/WiFi multi-homing, vehicular and ad hoc network routing,
storage-aware/delay tolerant networks, mobile content delivery,
location-aware protocols, inter-layer wireless security, future Internet
architecture, and mobile cloud computing.

ORBIT is available for remote or on-site access by academic researchers both
in the U.S. and internationally (prospective users should first send in an
account signup request using the [http://www.orbit-lab.org/userManagement/register registration form]).
Users will have access to the following resources: 
 * Range of radio resources including: !WiFi 802.11a/b/g 802.11n 802.11ac, Bluetooth (BLE), !ZigBee, Software Defined Radio (SDR) platforms (USRP, WARP, RTL-SDR, USRP N210, USRP X310)
 * Software defined networking (SDN) resources: NEC and Pronto switches, NetFPGA and NetFPGA-10G platforms
 * LTE ans WiMAX basesations and clients
 * Cloud resources (including a number of nodes with GPUs)

(Note that use of OUTDOOR nodes is by arrangement and generally requires physical presence of experimenters on the 
Rutgers campus).

For the basics of starting an experiment with the testbed refer to the
[wiki:Documentation/CGettingStarted#Howtogetstarted "Getting Started" document] and further details information on how to use the
ORBIT testbed can be found in the [wiki:Documentation documentation section]. Number of [wiki:Tutorials tutorials] is also available as a starting point for experimentation. Additional
information on both the [wiki:Hardware hardware] and [wiki:Software software] in ORBIT can also be found on
this site.