The Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things (WIoT) at Northeastern University has successfully tested the SignalCraft Technologies SC2430 signal conditioners in an end-to-end, 5G standalone setup with commercial 5G smartphones and open-source Radio Access Network (RAN) and Core Network components. The SC2430 improves coverage and throughput in the private 5G deployment in the Northeastern University ISEC building on the Boston campus. 

The fully automated 5G network is deployed on WIoT’s Arena testbed, which is an open-access wireless testing platform located in an office space with rich scattering and multi-path. The network provides Internet access to 5G commercial devices. The 5G RAN and core network is based on OpenAirInterface (OAI). The RF front-end is based on NI/Ettus’s USRP X410 SDR, and a OnePlus 5G smartphone is used as User Equipment (UE).  

The Northeastern University team, in collaboration with SignalCraft Technologies, has deployed an SC2430 in the network, acting as a programmable filter, power amplifier, and low-noise amplifier for the X410 in several 5G bands, and validated its performance for the first time with an open-source, end-to-end 5G standalone network.  

The testing is performed by moving the phone to 9 different locations across the fourth floor of ISEC, where the private network is deployed. At each location (shown in the figure below), we measure the RSRP and SINR (a metric of 5G signal strength) on the phone. If the phone successfully connects to the 5G network (i.e., the signal strength is high enough), we run the Ookla Speedtest application to measure the downlink and uplink throughputs.  

Our testing compares the coverage with and without SignalCraft’s SC2430 signal conditioner. With SC2430, the testing results show that the 5G phone can connect to our 5G network across all 9 locations, improving coverage in all open areas across the floor. Without SC2430, the 5G phone can only connect to the 5G network at location 0/1/8 of the figure below. The downlink throughput with the signal conditioner is up to 2.7x times higher than without the signal conditioner, thanks to improvements in the RSRP/SINR.