The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has unveiled a wireless test range to enable government, industry and academic researchers to test 5G equipment and related capabilities and identify and address security vulnerabilities.
INL said Tuesday it secured funding from the office of the undersecretary for research and engineering at the Department of Defense and worked with Mavenir Systems to equip the test range with 5G radios, base stations, antennas, a computerized core network and other cellular equipment.
“As the 5G ecosystem advances and becomes part of our daily lives, information and data security will be a critical consumer demand that we’ll address on this range,” said Dan Elmore, executive director of INL’s Wireless Security Institute.
Amanda Toman, director of 5G transition office and cross-functional team at DOD, said the new 5G test range could enable DOD to continue to advance 5G security, address challenges related to mission-critical communications and help soldiers ensure the security of their operations through any 5G network.