ARA-O-RAN: End-to-End Programmable O-RAN Living Lab for Agriculture and Rural Communities

Abstract: As wireless networks evolve towards open architectures like O-RAN, testing, and integration platforms are crucial to address challenges like interoperability. This paper describes ARA-O-RAN, a novel O-RAN testbed established through the NSF Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) ARA platform. ARA provides an at-scale rural wireless living lab focused on technologies for digital agriculture and rural communities. As an O-RAN Alliance certified Open Testing and Integration Centre (OTIC), ARA launched ARA-O-RAN -- the first public O-RAN testbed tailored to rural and agriculture use cases, together with the end-to-end, whole-stack programmability. ARA-O-RAN uniquely combines support for outdoor testing across a university campus, surrounding farmlands, and rural communities with a 50-node indoor sandbox. The testbed facilitates vital R&D to implement open architectures that can meet rural connectivity needs. The paper outlines ARA-O-RAN's hardware system design, software architecture, and enabled research experiments. It also discusses plans aligned with national spectrum policy and rural spectrum innovation. ARA-O-RAN exemplifies the value of purpose-built wireless testbeds in accelerating impactful wireless research.