Radio Frequency Emulation System for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Spectrum Collaboration Challenge

Abstract

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) designed and built a wireless communications research test bed, called the Colosseum, for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2). SC2 aimed to motivate research into autonomous wireless communication systems to uncover a new paradigm for managing the oversubscribed radio frequency (RF) spectrum. This article describes the Colosseum’s RF Emulation System, which mimicked real-world phenomenon such as propagation delay, Doppler shift, and power attenuation between 128 two-channel radios, or 65,536 wireless communications channels. The RF Emulation System emulated isolated virtual environments across multiple concurrent experiments, enabling challenge competitors to research, develop, and test next-generation artificial intelligence solutions for wireless network systems.