WinnForum to start work on ‘highly dynamic’ spectrum sharing

The Wireless Innovation Forum, which developed the spectrum sharing standards under which CBRS operates, is setting its sights on new work to develop approaches for spectrum sharing that is more dynamic, adaptable and real-time.

WInnForum has set up the new Highly Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Task Group to take on the task.

“The goal of this new group is to basically start from where we are today and find a path that can take us to spectrum-sharing systems that can operate in … much more complex environments,” said Google’s Andrew Clegg, who is WInnForum’s CTO and chair of the new group, in a podcast interview. He added that WInnForum’s task group hopes to apply the expertise built over the development of both CBRS’ three-tiered sharing framework specifications and automatic frequency coordination (AFC)-based sharing in the 6 GHz band, and apply them to meeting the needs for next-generation spectrum sharing, in time to support the U.S. government’s desire for a dynamic spectrum-sharing moonshot demonstration in late 2025.

According to WInnForum, the task group’s work will come in two phases. The first will analyze the problem, including what existing systems exist that have to be shared with, and Clegg said that the group hopes to results on that front within months. The second phase will explore frameworks to support the identified requirements, with a resulting technical report anticipated to be complete by early 2025. Thus far, known contributors include CommScope, Federated Wireless, Nokia, Sony and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA).

“The purpose of this project is to start with the best practices identified in CBRS spectrum sharing, and then attempt to simplify and optimize these practices for future applications, including the 3.1 GHz band,” said Clegg.

The move by WInnForum comes amid the U.S. government’s focus on a dynamic spectrum-sharing framework “moonshot”, spearheaded by the Department of Defense and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The two agencies, along with industry and academic partners, aim to develop and test cutting-edge dynamic spectrum-sharing approaches within 12-18 months from April 2024, hoping to provide a solid path to opening up the lower 3 GHz band and establish technology that will enable sharing across other bands as well.

If the U.S. is able to develop the foundational technology for adaptive coexistence of government and non-governmental networks and users across various spectrum bands, the capability is seen as an enormous potential advantage for both military and economic competition.

“We get this right on 3.1-3.45 … we can unlock other parts of the spectrum as well. And this is something our competitors cannot do,” said Department of Defense Chief Information Officer John Sherman during an event in Washington, D.C. earlier this year, which was hosted by telecom operator advocacy group CTIA. “Think about what this does for us across other parts of the spectrum, to be able to open it up and operate in a way that we haven’t been able to operate.”

The moonshot effort, which seeks to develop a next-generation spectrum-sharing capability, including a prototype system; improve upon CBRS and update propagation models and spectrum sensing; consider the different economic incentives that would come along with different sharing approaches and still make spectrum-related investment worthwhile for the telecom industry. Matthew Pearl, director and special advisor for emerging technologies on the White House National Security Council, said earlier this year at the CTIA even that the work also needs to increase the capability of existing commercial networks to share, potentially with integrated base station sensors to detect incumbent operations and also possibly by leveraging Open RAN and the RAN Intelligent Controller, so that new technology could be rolled out quickly and efficiently and ensure coexistence among services.

WinnForum invited interested parties to register for its CBRS Committee meeting at Google’s office in Reston, Virginia, on September 11.

For another view on an approach to midband spectrum coexistence, check out the upcoming RCR Wireless News webinar with Spectrum Effect, AT&T and MITRE. More information and registration available here.