As an Open Testing and Integration Center (OTIC), POWDER offers remotely accessible and highly flexible lab-as-a-service functionality — providing researchers with software, hardware, and bring-your-own-device capabilities. At the Fall 2025 O-RAN PlugFest, DeepSig, along with partners Keysight and SRS, put these resources to use in a first-of-its-kind demonstration of wireless channel emulation through generative AI modeling.
Using POWDER’s testbed infrastructure, DeepSig combined real RF measurements, generative AI modeling, and hardware-in-the-loop testing to show how operators can increase model accuracy and improve wireless coverage and throughput. The work opens the door to several new possibilities in wireless network design. In addition to direct performance improvements, DeepSig’s technology furthers the ability to create site-specific digital twins and enables massive data compression through the company’s data flow model.
POWDER provided the necessary facilities for the plugfest demonstration. It stood up an end-to-end 5G environment with open source srsRAN software and a Keysight PROPSIM device in the RF chain. Additionally, POWDER supplied a variety of RF components to enable test scenarios, and to facilitate setup and debugging. The joint Plugfest team made use of POWDER’s programmable attenuator matrix to dial in RF signal strength between the radio unit and COTS user devices.
POWDER was designated an OTIC by the O-RAN ALLIANCE back in 2023 and serves as a regular testing site for O-RAN plugfests alongside the three other PAWR platforms.
For more information on DeepSig’s work in the Fall 2025 O-RAN PlugFest, visit the company’s website. A company blog post provides technical test results and details on DeepSig’s generative AI channel modeling technology.
Above: Select radio and channel model emulator equipment
used in the O-RAN plugfest at POWDER
