Advancing Next Generation Wireless Networks With Digital Twin: Construction, Validation, and Real-World Applications on an Indoor Over-the-Air Testbed

Digital Twin (DT) technology has recently emerged as a powerful tool with the potential to revolutionize wireless systems as it enables accurate simulations, better decision-making, and tangible operational improvements. Prior studies on DT within the context of next generation wireless technologies...

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Main Authors: Berk Akgun, Aditya Jolly, Balwinder Sachdev, Divya Ravichandran, Roohollah Amiri, Vikas Jain, Muruganandam Jayabalan, Yitao Chen, Hetal Pathak, Vinay Chande, Mohammad Fahim, Srinivas Yerramalli, Rupesh Acharya, Chandresh Tiwari, Connor Woodahl, Arumugam Kannan, Xiaoxia Zhang, Deepu Alex, Abhishek Kumar, Hai Hong, John Boyd, Rajat Prakash, Suresh Babu Mummana, Sumanth Govindappa, James Y. Wilson, Jalaj Swami, Vivian Pham, Andrei Vadeanu, Gilad Govrin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2024-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10746401/
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author Berk Akgun
Aditya Jolly
Balwinder Sachdev
Divya Ravichandran
Roohollah Amiri
Vikas Jain
Muruganandam Jayabalan
Yitao Chen
Hetal Pathak
Vinay Chande
Mohammad Fahim
Srinivas Yerramalli
Rupesh Acharya
Chandresh Tiwari
Connor Woodahl
Arumugam Kannan
Xiaoxia Zhang
Deepu Alex
Abhishek Kumar
Hai Hong
John Boyd
Rajat Prakash
Suresh Babu Mummana
Sumanth Govindappa
James Y. Wilson
Jalaj Swami
Vivian Pham
Andrei Vadeanu
Gilad Govrin
author_facet Berk Akgun
Aditya Jolly
Balwinder Sachdev
Divya Ravichandran
Roohollah Amiri
Vikas Jain
Muruganandam Jayabalan
Yitao Chen
Hetal Pathak
Vinay Chande
Mohammad Fahim
Srinivas Yerramalli
Rupesh Acharya
Chandresh Tiwari
Connor Woodahl
Arumugam Kannan
Xiaoxia Zhang
Deepu Alex
Abhishek Kumar
Hai Hong
John Boyd
Rajat Prakash
Suresh Babu Mummana
Sumanth Govindappa
James Y. Wilson
Jalaj Swami
Vivian Pham
Andrei Vadeanu
Gilad Govrin
author_sort Berk Akgun
collection DOAJ
description Digital Twin (DT) technology has recently emerged as a powerful tool with the potential to revolutionize wireless systems as it enables accurate simulations, better decision-making, and tangible operational improvements. Prior studies on DT within the context of next generation wireless technologies have primarily focused on identifying potential use cases, application scenarios, standardization challenges, and conceptual implementation steps. However, the existing research is limited in translating theoretical ideas into real-world applications. Our research, in this paper, contributes to the practical realization of DT technology in the context of 6G wireless networks, demonstrating its potential impact on network planning, performance, and user experience. In particular, we explore the construction, validation, and applications of DT utilizing an indoor over-the-air (OTA) 5G NR testbed powered by an in-house developed Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) that is fully compliant with 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and Open RAN standards. First, we explain the integration and implementation steps followed to integrate Qualcomm EdgewiseTM Suite and Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) tools into the NG-RAN architecture, that will eventually enable the applicability of DT for wireless network operations. We then describe our procedure to construct and validate a high-fidelity DT of our OTA testbed modeling both Radio Frequency (RF) environment and system components. We demonstrate two pre-deployment use cases by describing our extensive coverage estimation and network capacity planning tests in OTA. Lastly, we explore how DT enables practical machine learning solutions for post-deployment use cases and share our comprehensive OTA performance results, highlighting that our proposed mobility and positioning techniques outperform the classical approaches in terms of throughput, number of undesired handovers, and positioning accuracy.
format Article
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institution Kabale University
issn 2169-3536
language English
publishDate 2024-01-01
publisher IEEE
record_format Article
series IEEE Access
spelling doaj-art-4db89243685a413f95dd70a1b88339f02024-11-29T00:01:18ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362024-01-011216629816631910.1109/ACCESS.2024.349360910746401Advancing Next Generation Wireless Networks With Digital Twin: Construction, Validation, and Real-World Applications on an Indoor Over-the-Air TestbedBerk Akgun0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1104-934XAditya Jolly1https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3280-6340Balwinder Sachdev2https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6633-3160Divya Ravichandran3Roohollah Amiri4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6373-121XVikas Jain5https://orcid.org/0009-0006-4561-7225Muruganandam Jayabalan6https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0968-3063Yitao Chen7https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7067-3983Hetal Pathak8Vinay Chande9https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7516-7573Mohammad Fahim10https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4266-7087Srinivas Yerramalli11https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2746-4721Rupesh Acharya12https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4691-8474Chandresh Tiwari13Connor Woodahl14https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1700-1458Arumugam Kannan15https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7327-0819Xiaoxia Zhang16Deepu Alex17https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6092-7709Abhishek Kumar18https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5586-1918Hai Hong19John Boyd20https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6242-7714Rajat Prakash21Suresh Babu Mummana22Sumanth Govindappa23James Y. Wilson24Jalaj Swami25https://orcid.org/0009-0001-8388-0669Vivian Pham26Andrei Vadeanu27Gilad Govrin28Qualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USAQualcomm Technologies Inc., San Diego, CA, USADigital Twin (DT) technology has recently emerged as a powerful tool with the potential to revolutionize wireless systems as it enables accurate simulations, better decision-making, and tangible operational improvements. Prior studies on DT within the context of next generation wireless technologies have primarily focused on identifying potential use cases, application scenarios, standardization challenges, and conceptual implementation steps. However, the existing research is limited in translating theoretical ideas into real-world applications. Our research, in this paper, contributes to the practical realization of DT technology in the context of 6G wireless networks, demonstrating its potential impact on network planning, performance, and user experience. In particular, we explore the construction, validation, and applications of DT utilizing an indoor over-the-air (OTA) 5G NR testbed powered by an in-house developed Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) that is fully compliant with 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and Open RAN standards. First, we explain the integration and implementation steps followed to integrate Qualcomm EdgewiseTM Suite and Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) tools into the NG-RAN architecture, that will eventually enable the applicability of DT for wireless network operations. We then describe our procedure to construct and validate a high-fidelity DT of our OTA testbed modeling both Radio Frequency (RF) environment and system components. We demonstrate two pre-deployment use cases by describing our extensive coverage estimation and network capacity planning tests in OTA. Lastly, we explore how DT enables practical machine learning solutions for post-deployment use cases and share our comprehensive OTA performance results, highlighting that our proposed mobility and positioning techniques outperform the classical approaches in terms of throughput, number of undesired handovers, and positioning accuracy.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10746401/Digital twinopen RAN3GPPRAN disaggregationnetwork planningmobility
spellingShingle Berk Akgun
Aditya Jolly
Balwinder Sachdev
Divya Ravichandran
Roohollah Amiri
Vikas Jain
Muruganandam Jayabalan
Yitao Chen
Hetal Pathak
Vinay Chande
Mohammad Fahim
Srinivas Yerramalli
Rupesh Acharya
Chandresh Tiwari
Connor Woodahl
Arumugam Kannan
Xiaoxia Zhang
Deepu Alex
Abhishek Kumar
Hai Hong
John Boyd
Rajat Prakash
Suresh Babu Mummana
Sumanth Govindappa
James Y. Wilson
Jalaj Swami
Vivian Pham
Andrei Vadeanu
Gilad Govrin
Advancing Next Generation Wireless Networks With Digital Twin: Construction, Validation, and Real-World Applications on an Indoor Over-the-Air Testbed
IEEE Access
Digital twin
open RAN
3GPP
RAN disaggregation
network planning
mobility
title Advancing Next Generation Wireless Networks With Digital Twin: Construction, Validation, and Real-World Applications on an Indoor Over-the-Air Testbed
title_full Advancing Next Generation Wireless Networks With Digital Twin: Construction, Validation, and Real-World Applications on an Indoor Over-the-Air Testbed
title_fullStr Advancing Next Generation Wireless Networks With Digital Twin: Construction, Validation, and Real-World Applications on an Indoor Over-the-Air Testbed
title_full_unstemmed Advancing Next Generation Wireless Networks With Digital Twin: Construction, Validation, and Real-World Applications on an Indoor Over-the-Air Testbed
title_short Advancing Next Generation Wireless Networks With Digital Twin: Construction, Validation, and Real-World Applications on an Indoor Over-the-Air Testbed
title_sort advancing next generation wireless networks with digital twin construction validation and real world applications on an indoor over the air testbed
topic Digital twin
open RAN
3GPP
RAN disaggregation
network planning
mobility
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10746401/
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