With its promise of increasing softwarization, improving disaggregability, and creating an open-source based ecosystem in the area of Radio Access Networks, the idea of Open RAN has generated rising interest in the community. Even as the community races to provide and verify complete Open RAN systems, the importance of verification of systems based on Open RAN under real-world conditions has become clear, and testbed facilities for general use have been envisioned, in addition to private testing facilities. Aerial robots, including autonomous ones, are among the increasingly important and interesting clients of RAN systems, but also present a challenge for testbeds. Based on our experience in architecting and operating an advanced wireless testbed with aerial robots as a primary citizen, we present considerations relevant to the design of Open RAN testbeds, with particular attention to making such a testbed capable of controlled experimentation with aerial clients. We also present representative results from the NSF AERPAW testbed on Open RAN slicing, programmable vehicles, and programmable radios.

翻译：摘要：开放无线接入网（Open RAN）理念有望提升无线接入网领域的软件化程度、增强解耦性并构建基于开源生态的体系，这一思路已在业界引发日益浓厚的兴趣。尽管业界正竞相提供并验证完整的Open RAN系统，但在真实条件下验证基于Open RAN的系统的重要性已日益凸显，除私有测试设施外，通用测试平台的建设构想也已提上日程。包括自主机器人在内的空中机器人，正成为无线接入网系统中日益重要且有趣的应用终端，但同时也对测试平台构成独特挑战。基于我们以空中机器人为核心组件设计并运营先进无线测试平台的经验，本文提出与Open RAN测试平台设计相关的考量因素，特别关注如何使此类平台具备可控空中客户端实验能力。此外，文中还展示了美国国家科学基金会（NSF）AERPAW测试平台在Open RAN切片、可编程车辆与可编程无线电方面的代表性实验成果。