The Defense Industry Will Benefit From U.S. Wireless Spectrum Policy Changes

By Armando Montalvo, Chief Technology Officer, Digital Global Systems

Wireless spectrum is a valuable resource that has fueled defense technology since the first Morse code signal traveled on a radio wave in 1895. Wireless systems offer the defense industry a variety of mission-critical applications, from battlefield equipment to unmanned air, land, and sea drones.

Yet, spectrum—with airwaves divvied up into discrete, usable channels through sophisticated technical engineering magic—is finite and has become increasingly congested in recent years. Spectrum crowding today is impeding the growth and effective use of new, even more advanced 5G defense applications.

Fifteen years ago, U.S. homeland security was a primary consideration underlying the FCC decision to establish Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), a three-tiered set of shared airwaves in the robust 3.5 GHz band (not to be confused with Citizens Band Radio). CBRS assures priority for government operations—primarily domestic border and coastal patrols and surveillance conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). At the same time, the policy has permitted secondary, side-by-side CBRS band uses by private enterprises, including defense contractors, as well as airport, seaport, and transportation operators, for rapidly evolving IoT (shorthand for “Internet of Things”) applications. Domestic spectrum management technology further aids the development of DoD capabilities deployed not only at home but globally.

“DoD has a vital interest in advancing 5G-to-NextG wireless technologies and concept demonstrations,” according to Dr. Sumit Roy, director of the department’s Innovate Beyond 5G (IB5G) Program. “These efforts represent our continuing investments via public and private sector collaboration on research & development for critical Beyond 5G technology enablers necessary to realize high performance, secure, and resilient network operations for the future warfighter.” (Learn more)

Limitations and Demand for Wireless Spectrum Access Today

Current spectrum allocations remain insufficient for high-mobility, low-latency, and high-reliability services envisioned to be enabled by new 5G telecommunication networks, which launched commercially in 2019. Further, additional spectrum is needed at appropriate frequency bands to make the deployments of advanced services economical and effective.

The FCC has investigated and proposed alternative allocation schemes, with the preservation of defense capabilities a high priority. These schemes call for greater efficiencies, where services with different requirements can share available spectrum. Several sharing alternatives are being investigated and are the subject of much debate between government agencies and commercial industries.

Most of the approaches are based on the scheduling of spectrum access by different services, where the schedule is either known beforehand or where users access web portals to identify their intended services and where and how they intend to use the spectrum. Propagation models are created to estimate the level of interference by the requesting services to grant access to the spectrum. A prime example of this approach is Citizen Broadband Radio Service (CBRS).

The granting of co-primary access to the government’s incumbent services—including coastal and air defense functions—has generated some confusion and controversy due to the poor utilization and interference that one service may generate for the other.

The most prominent and public example of competing airwave needs was the fear several years ago that launching commercial 5G signals in the 3.7–3.98 GHz range would compromise in-flight technology vital in low-visibility conditions.

To avoid similar interference in the CBRS band, government agencies developed a measurement system to monitor interference from commercial services. Additionally, they established a portal to coordinate the deployment of commercial services while minimizing resulting interference with defense capabilities.

Pressure on the FCC

The initial portal approach has been deemed ineffective by government agencies sharing the spectrum. This clearly indicates the current spectrum management system is not adequate to allow any spectrum sharing on a co-prime or secondary basis. As a result, lobbying pressure is being applied by CTIA, the nation’s wireless industry trade organization, to auction these airwaves to the highest bidder. CTIA primarily represents the nation’s big wireless carriers, which want the FCC to continue its legacy policy of auctioning long-term licenses for their exclusive use.

However, against this tide, the federal government has signaled that it plans to press forward with a once-in-a-generation policy revolution that will change the way the federal government assigns spectrum rights. The Biden-Harris administration is promoting a recommendation from its National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to explore dynamic spectrum sharing as a method to better share valuable airwaves in real time and overcome current clumsy administrative methods.

Spectrum Management Must Work in Real Time

There is a need for an alternative approach to enabling innovation in wireless communications—for developing defense industry applications, IoT, enterprise communications in the field, and security monitoring, to name a few—that is not entirely controlled by slow-moving bureaucracies.

Fortunately, new and improved dynamic spectrum sharing technologies—based on actual, real-time measurement of current spectrum utilization and the RF environment—are available to ease the crisis. These technologies are better equipped to deal with these issues and provide dependable, dynamic spectrum access to multiple services more efficiently.

Dynamic spectrum management facilitates low latency and high reliability on wireless network architectures. In addition to improving spectrum utilization, dynamic spectrum management supports real-time optimization of network resources to facilitate low latency and high-reliability services with only modest adjustments to existing network architectures.

Policy efforts should focus on how spectrum is used and the performance gains that can be achieved through a dynamic spectrum management system rather than simply what additional spectrum should be made available. This will create new opportunities for defense-supporting industries to unleash the power of advanced wireless technologies and enhance the nation’s peacetime and wartime capabilities.

Airwaves have not magically multiplied since they were first discovered. Their utilization has grown exponentially since the launch of first-generation wireless services 50 years ago. Since then, wireless services have become an important tool in the defense industry toolkit, more than just voice, data, and text services, adding new demand to the congested airwaves.

New approaches are in order to enjoy the promise of the 5th generation of wireless evolution while ensuring the ability of our government agencies to access valuable, prime spectrum real estate.

Dr. Armando Montalvo, Chief Technology Officer of DGS, has held senior management positions at leading companies, including Bell Labs, Hughes Space and Communication, and Alcatel. He has led teams in the design, development, and successful deployment of wireless sensor and communication systems for the U.S. Department of Defense, as well as aerospace, oil & gas exploration, and production markets.