I lead Open6G at Northeastern University. Open6G is the first O-RAN ALLIANCE recognized Open Testing and Integration Center (OTIC) in the U.S. to have released a certificate for an O-RAN radio unit (RU). Open6G launched in 2022 with a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Innovate Beyond 5G program.

Testbeds

• X5G: open, programmable, multi-vendor, end-to-end private 5G O-RAN testbed with NVIDIA ARC (Aerial) and OpenAirInterface. Paper
• Northeastern private 5G network: a fully automated O-RAN private 5G network launched in 2023.
• Colosseum: the large-scale wireless network emulator, used as an Open RAN digital twin. Paper
• OpenRAN Gym: open-source framework for AI/ML xApp and dApp design and testing on these platforms.

Events

• Open6G+AI Workshop 2026 at Northeastern, with workshops, tutorials, and a hackathon.

Key papers

• D. Villa, I. Khan, F. Kaltenberger, N. Hedberg, R. S. da Silva, S. Maxenti, L. Bonati, A. Kelkar, C. Dick, E. Baena, J. M. Jornet, T. Melodia, M. Polese, and D. Koutsonikolas, “X5G: An Open, Programmable, Multi-vendor, End-to-end, Private 5G O-RAN Testbed with NVIDIA ARC and OpenAirInterface,” IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2025. arXiv
• M. Polese, L. Bonati, S. D’Oro, P. Johari, D. Villa, S. Velumani, R. Gangula, M. Tsampazi, C. Paul Robinson, G. Gemmi, A. Lacava, S. Maxenti, H. Cheng, and T. Melodia, “Colosseum: The Open RAN Digital Twin,” IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, vol. 5, pp. 5452-5466, 2024. arXiv
• L. Bonati, M. Polese, S. D’Oro, S. Basagni, and T. Melodia, “OpenRAN Gym: AI/ML Development, Data Collection, and Testing for O-RAN on PAWR Platforms,” Computer Networks, vol. 220, 2023. arXiv
• M. Polese, L. Bonati, S. D’Oro, S. Basagni, and T. Melodia, “Understanding O-RAN: Architecture, Interfaces, Algorithms, Security, and Research Challenges,” IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 1376-1411, 2023. Open access

See also: AI-RAN, dApps and the E3 interface, and the full publication list.