March 2026

Conference Paper

COSMIC DAWN: Distributed Analysis of Wireless at Nextscale

By:
Wise, Michael M; Miniskar, Narasinga Rao ; Hitefield, Seth D; Olama, Mohammed M; Vetter, Jeffrey S
Page Number:
1-6
Book Title:
MILCOM 2024 - 2024 IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM)
Publication Date:
March 12, 2026
Publisher Location:
IEEE, New Jersey, United States of America
Conference Name:
IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM)
Conference Location:
Washington, DC, District of Columbia, United States of America
Conference Sponsor:
IEEE
View DOI Listing:
https://doi.org/10.1109/MILCOM61039.2024.10773643

Abstract

Distributed Analysis of Wireless at Nextscale (DAWN) is a novel simulation framework for large-scale design-space exploration (DSE) of unmodified software-defined radio (SDR) applications interacting in a scalable, high-fidelity, virtual physics environment. The software-defined nature of the coupled software-physics simulation leverages hardware emulation to permit in-depth examination and modification of not only the electromagnetic environment, including each signal in flight, but also the precise state of system software and components. DAWN supports modular, customizable physics environments allowing realistic propagation effects so that computationally efficient empirical models, reduced order/surrogate models, or large-scale, high-fidelity, site-specific simulations can be used as a propagation medium based on scenario requirements. This paper introduces DAWN’s design and initial implementation, detailing key architectural components, including the Physics Realization Engine (PhyRE), Runtime Infrastructure for Simulation Environments (RISE), and the design space exploration (DSE) suite. It concludes with demonstrations using unmodified 4G/LTE software available from srsRAN on computing resources ranging from a small cluster to ORNL’s Frontier Exascale system.