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Identity and attestation
Hardware-rooted identity, with a quote checked at every join.
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Test and qualification/
ArchitectureHow test and qualification is built.
One reference architecture under every deployment: the layers of a site, the protocol functions this platform relies on, and the evidence that travels with every observation.
Plan with usIndustriesAreas · 5 Technologies · 184 Industries · 4
At a glance
Frontier and research
In Test and qualification, the frontier and research layer holds quantum magnetometers and gravimeters, distributed fibre-optic sensing and machine-learning calibration of sensor networks, each drawn against the standard it follows. Atomic sensors with higher sensitivity and less drift for geophysics and navigation backup.
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Tested against the specification. State on record
This page shows how Test and qualification is put together, layer by layer, from the instrument to the record. Lab and field testing of devices and releases, conformance runs against the protocol, interoperability events where suppliers meet on one test plan, and evidence bundles a buyer, an auditor or a regulator can check without taking our word for it.
Components
- Pole-mounted edge gateway node
- Automatic weather station (AWS) to WMO siting practice
- Particulate monitoring station and sensor node
- Compact X-band weather radar / ISAC sensing node on a lattice tower top
- Street small-cell pole with an air-quality node
- “AI tower in a box”
- Hardware security module, 1U, in an edge rack
- Data hall row pair with cold-aisle containment
Interfaces
- Amathuluzi
- SDI-12 · RS-485 / Modbus RTU · 4–20 mA
- Radio
- Ethernet · LTE-M / NB-IoT · LoRaWAN
- Time and position
- GNSS 1PPS
- Security
- TPM 2.0
- Publishing
- MQTT
Where it works
- Hydrology and water
- Air quality and atmospheric composition
- Calibration, metadata and quality control
In the story below
- The system, part by part
- Assembly
- Installation
- Deployment
- Connections
- Operation
- Failure and recovery
- Scale and federation
- What you get
Scenes · 13
Next steps
Plan a deploymentOpen the Field Deployment StudioSee Test and qualificationTest and qualification · Architecture
Tested against the specification. State on record
This page shows how Test and qualification is put together, layer by layer, from the instrument to the record. Lab and field testing of devices and releases, conformance runs against the protocol, interoperability events where suppliers meet on one test plan, and evidence bundles a buyer, an auditor or a regulator can check without taking our word for it.
Architecture · In situ sensors and instruments
Frontier and research
In Test and qualification, the frontier and research layer holds quantum magnetometers and gravimeters, distributed fibre-optic sensing and machine-learning calibration of sensor networks, each drawn against the standard it follows. Atomic sensors with higher sensitivity and less drift for geophysics and navigation backup.
Architecture · In situ sensors and instruments
Hydrology and water
In Test and qualification, the hydrology and water layer holds water level, discharge by velocity-area and rating curves and acoustic Doppler current profilers, each drawn against the standard it follows. Pressure, radar, bubbler and float sensors at gauging stations and reservoirs.
Architecture · In situ sensors and instruments
Meteorology
In Test and qualification, the meteorology layer holds air temperature and humidity, atmospheric pressure and surface wind, each drawn against the standard it follows. Ventilated, shielded thermometers and hygrometers sited and exposed to WMO practice. Barometers for weather, altimetry correction and storm surge analysis.
Architecture · In situ sensors and instruments
Air quality and atmospheric composition
In Test and qualification, the air quality and atmospheric composition layer holds reference gas analysers, particulate matter monitors and low-cost sensor systems, each drawn against the standard it follows. Continuous analysers for nitrogen oxides, ozone, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide by reference methods.
Architecture · In situ sensors and instruments
RF, acoustics, cameras and radar
In Test and qualification, the RF, acoustics, cameras and radar layer holds spectrum monitoring receivers, direction finding and emitter geolocation and acoustic and noise monitoring, each drawn against the standard it follows. Measured occupancy, interference and emissions across bands at a site.
Architecture · 5G and 6G radio access networks
Macro, small cells, DAS and repeaters
In Test and qualification, the macro, small cells, DAS and repeaters layer holds macro sites, small cells and distributed antenna systems, each drawn against the standard it follows. Tower and rooftop base stations that carry wide-area coverage and most traffic.
Ukwethembeka
Proved before it is trusted
A network for Test and qualification admits a node only once its hardware root of trust has answered an attestation challenge, whoever supplied it. Signed software, keys kept in secure hardware and a signature on every record let anyone check where a value for Test and qualification came from.
Architecture · In situ sensors and instruments
Seismic, geodetic, geomagnetic and radiation
In Test and qualification, the seismic, geodetic, geomagnetic and radiation layer holds broadband and strong-motion seismometers, infrasound arrays and continuous GNSS geodetic stations, each drawn against the standard it follows. Ground motion recording for earthquakes, volcanoes and structural response. Low-frequency pressure sensing for explosions, volcanoes and bolides.
Architecture · In situ sensors and instruments
Calibration, metadata and quality control
In Test and qualification, the calibration, metadata and quality control layer holds calibration laboratories and traceability, measurement uncertainty and field calibration and intercomparison, each drawn against the standard it follows. Calibrations tied to SI standards through accredited laboratories with stated uncertainty.
Architecture · In situ sensors and instruments
Ocean and coastal
In Test and qualification, the ocean and coastal layer holds CTD profilers, acoustic Doppler current profilers and moored and drifting buoys, each drawn against the standard it follows. Conductivity, temperature and depth instruments for salinity and density profiles. Moored and hull-mounted profilers for currents through the water column.
What you get
Open where it can be, contracted where it must be
What is open for Test and qualification is free: the protocol, the methods and the open data can be used and built on by anyone. What must be contracted for Test and qualification, sites, fleets, managed operations and data tiers, Nexus Observatory Inc. delivers at a price per site and per fleet, with service levels in numbers.
Next step
Test and qualification, planned with you
Tell us which layers of Test and qualification you already run and which you want us to design and deliver. An engineer replies with a survey proposal, a design and a scope for Test and qualification, and the plan grows from one site to the network you need.
Plan a deploymentOpen the Field Deployment StudioSee Test and qualification
More presentations
See it from every side.
Each opens as a full-screen presentation: deeper pages on the same subject, explainers, stories, guided tours of the places, network scenes and the observatories that came before.
All presentationsIn depth
Use case Utility grid-edge private LTE and wildfire weatherUse case Northern civil observatoryISIC section · ISIC F ConstructionISIC section · ISIC C UkukhiqizaExplainers
Explainer · Scientific Scientific, explainedExplainer · Industrial IndustrialBlast vibration at the pit, fire weather at the grid edge, methane at the fenceline and tailings movement from GNSS.Inkundla Test and qualificationClaims are easy; evidence is rareInkundla ConnectivityPublic networks were not built for this siteStories
Story · Orbit Orbits as infrastructureLow orbits are fast and crowded, high orbits slow and spacious. Every choice of altitude is a trade between delay, footprint and how long the satellite…Story · Overview What changes by 2030Six shifts will reshape how the Earth is observed before the decade ends: networks that sense, models that forecast, foundation models that read imagery,…Story · Timing and PNT Time as infrastructureA 5G cell must hold its phase within 3 µs of its neighbours, ±1.5 µs of a common reference; a synchrophasor’s one per cent vector error leaves room for only…Places and networks
Guided tour · Guided 3D tour Orbit viewGround tracks of a sun-synchronous imager and three shells of a broadband constellation, computed from their orbits over a rotating Earth.Guided tour · Guided 3D tour Ground stationAn 11 m class antenna and its companions on a fenced pad, with edge compute that turns each pass into catalogued products before the next one.Network scene · Private 5G · Mining Private 5G in an open-pit mineA private network for haul trucks, drills and slope radar: a mast on the rim, a cell in the pit, the core at the plant, and coverage computed over the benches themselves.Network scene · NTN · Satellite Satellite direct to device in a mountain valleyWhere the valley cell cannot reach, phones on the pass road connect straight to a low-orbit satellite, which relays through its feeder link to a gateway.Heritage observatories
Heritage observatory · Low Earth orbit · 2014 Copernicus Sentinel-1A pair of radar satellites at a time, imaging the Earth day and night through cloud, with data free to anyone.Heritage observatory · 200 km · 1978 Global Positioning SystemThirty-odd satellites, each carrying an atomic clock, broadcasting where they are and what time it is.Interactive tools
Interactive tool · Plan a site Field Deployment StudioTerrain, devices, coverage, viewshed, power and the best spot for a station, then a deployment request with the plan attached.01Reference architecture
From one instrument to the grid.
Every deployment is drawn on the same six layers. A typed contract sits at every boundary, so parts from different makers fit together.
- 01InstrumentThe sensor or radio that makes the measurement, with its calibration.
- 02NodeThe device that hosts instruments: identity, time, power and storage.
- 03SiteNodes in one place, on one mast or in one shelter, with their links.
- 04CellSites that share a backhaul, a power plan and an operator.
- 05ClusterCells run as one service, with one fleet plan and one evidence trail.
- 06GridClusters that federate across owners through the open protocol.
The protocol functions this platform relies on most.
02Trust and evidence
Every observation carries its proof.
What a buyer, a regulator or a partner grid can check, on every site we build.
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Segmentation
Least privilege between nodes, tenants and sites.
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Time integrity
Every clock monitored, every holdover logged.
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Evidence bundles
What was done, by whom, with what result.
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Qualification state
Each device and release, with the tests behind it.
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Signed plans
Software and configuration change only by a signed plan.
03Read further
The open specification behind it.
Observatory ProtocolSpecification
Functions, state machines, objects and flows. Read →Observatory ProtocolReference designs
Nodes and sites drawn to the protocol. Read →Observatory ProtocolUkuhambisana
Run the suite against an implementation. Read →04Kule sayithi
Where to go next.
Test and qualificationIzindawo
Every area, with its systems and standards. Open →Test and qualificationTechnologies
The layered map of what we build with. Open →Test and qualificationIndustries
The industry sites built on this platform. Open →Test and qualificationIzinsiza
Explainer, stories, specification and forms. Open →Bring us the site.
We bring the survey, the design and the crew. The form names who receives your details.
Plan a deploymentXhumana nathi