| An adaptable and cutting-edge
test facility enables collaborative research by investigators supported
by the NSF-funded Center for Integrated Access Networks (CIAN), an Engineering
Research Center based at the University of Arizona. The Grand Challenge
Testbed at the University of Southern California, San Diego (UCSD), a CIAN
partner institution, is a unique, shared research facility where the Center's
work across its varied research thrusts is integrated, enabling cooperative
investigations among Center participants and with the wider research and
industrial community.
This facility, the California
Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CalIT2), provides
contiguous laboratory space and unique test capabilities that afford a
more systems-driven environment than is possible in individual academic
laboratories. Equipment enables detailed testing at the system level of
data transmission impairments, power penalty, polarization effects, bit
error rate, aggregate capacity, reconfiguration time, network outage probability,
and data blocking statistics. Such tests enable CIAN researchers
to identify key limitations of technology specifications, foster collaborative
work with industry, and showcase Center technologies. The test facilities
also provide a unique educational environment for training graduate, undergraduate,
and K-12 students.
CIAN also operates a number
of satellite testbeds and plans to develop other major facilities, including
a Data Centers Testbed that would provide a small-scale data center to
enable Center research activities at the architectural and signal-encoding
levels. Plans to develop a Subsystem Packaging and Testing Testbed
would also enable Center researchers to package and test sub-system devices
for insertion into the systems test facilities. |
