Together, the SDR and open source RAN communities are shaping the future of physical-layer research and network innovation
Summary
- GNU Radio will join the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation as a technical project, bringing its software-defined radio community into the open source RAN ecosystem.
- The addition of the project expands opportunities for physical-layer experimentation, RF emulation, channel modeling and 5G-Advanced and 6G research.
- Together, OCUDU and GNU Radio create pathways for project sustainability and collaboration across industry, government and academia.
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation, a collaborative initiative hosted by the Linux Foundation to advance the open source RAN ecosystem, today announced that GNU Radio will join as an official technical project. The addition will bridge a critical gap in open source telecommunications by uniting one of the most widely adopted software-defined radio (SDR) communities with the open source RAN software stack.
GNU Radio is a free, open source SDR framework providing reusable signal-processing blocks and flowgraph-based tools to build, test and deploy radio systems. By joining the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation, GNU Radio extends the ecosystem into physical-layer research and RF experimentation, bridging signal processing with open source RAN software and next-generation network development.
“As the industry advances from 5G to 5G-Advanced and 6G, closer collaboration across radio, edge and network technologies will be critical,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, networking, edge and IoT at the Linux Foundation. “Bringing GNU Radio into the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation connects two complementary communities, creating new opportunities for experimentation and helping move emerging technologies from research toward practical open network implementations.”
By uniting GNU Radio and OCUDU’s open source RAN community, developers, academic researchers, laboratories, commercial R&D organizations, telecommunications companies, equipment manufacturers, students and open source/RF enthusiasts gain an end-to-end framework for testing and building wireless systems across a wide range of use cases. This reduces duplicate effort, simplifies code reuse and strengthens project maintenance and the sustainability of the software, facilitating next-generation radio technologies.
“GNU Radio has always been about giving engineers, researchers and students the tools to experiment with radio systems, from the physical layer all the way up to complete wireless applications. Joining the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation gives our community a natural place to collaborate more closely around emerging wireless standards, while also providing a strong foundation for GNU Radio’s long-term sustainability,” said Josh Morman, president, GNU Radio. “We’re excited about what this can enable in 5G, 6G and beyond, and across the broader wireless research community.”
OCUDU Ecosystem Developer Summit 2026
The OCUDU community will come together October 20-22 in Alexandria, Virginia, for the OCUDU Ecosystem Developer Summit, co-hosted with Virginia Tech and the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative. The three-day event will bring developers, researchers, operators, vendors and ecosystem partners together for technical collaboration, hands-on learning and discussions around open source RAN, real-world deployments, integration and the future of 5G and 6G wireless innovation.
Many of the featured innovations will highlight the power of GNU Radio, including a demonstration of “Real-Time Multi-Cell Channel Emulation for OCUDU-Based 5G Testbeds” that showcases how GNU Radio-based emulation directly enhances OCUDU software capabilities. Registration is now open.
Learn more about the GNU Radio project, the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation, access GNU Radio project tutorials and documentation, and contribute through the project’s GitHub repository at github.com/gnuradio.
About the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation
The OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation, hosted by the Linux Foundation, is an open collaboration hub dedicated to building, scaling, and sustaining the OCUDU technical project and its associated ecosystem. The Foundation brings together communications service providers, technology vendors, silicon providers, cloud providers, system integrators, research institutions, and the open source community to accelerate the development and adoption of open, interoperable, cloud-native radio access networks through collaboration, reference architectures, validation, CI/CD/CT infrastructure, and ecosystem alignment. For more information, visit https://ocudu.org.
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