Working With DOD, NTIA Developing More Sophisticated Sharing Spectrum System

NTIA, working with DOD, is pushing ahead on a spectrum sharing system going beyond what's possible in the nascent citizens broadband radio service, said Charles Cooper, associate administrator of the NTIA Office of Spectrum Management, at the Americas Spectrum Management Conference Friday. NTIA is tentatively calling it “incumbent informing capability,” or ICC, and it’s being developed in coordination with the Defense Information Systems Agency, he said.

NTIA is considering how to create a “uniform platform” for dynamic spectrum sharing, Cooper said. Rather than relying on just environmental sensing, “the ICC would allow federal agencies to … populate and update a real-time database with frequency, location and time of use information for systems they deploy in the U.S.,” he said. The ICC could allow the opening of more bands for sharing, he said. The database would be used by spectrum access systems that manage sharing and provide “greater certainty” for carriers, he said.

NTIA sees ICC “as a federalized system run and administered by the NTIA,” Cooper said. It will be a “long-term” project and “will have some trial and error,” he said.

The licenses the FCC plans to offer for 5G in the 3.45-3.55 GHz band will likely be high power and comparable to what will be sold in the C-band auction, said Nick Degani, aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, at the same conference Friday. The topic of the week at various conferences has been the latest spectrum bands being opened by the FCC, including 3.5 GHz and the C band, the subject of an auction set to start Dec. 8.

The FCC’s “biggest move to free up midband spectrum for 5G” remains the C band, Degani said. The FCC is also looking at other possibilities in the 3.3, 4.8 and 12 GHz bands “to create new 5G opportunities while protecting incumbents from harmful interference,” he said: “Everything is on the table, and we’ve been moving very quickly.”

International harmonization is important, but not necessary, to open spectrum bands, Degani said. Pai understands the importance of “economies of scale” for devices, he said. “If we can’t start globally, let's start” with the U.S., he said: “Can we add in Canada and Mexico? Can we add in the rest of Latin America? Can we add in Europe? … The more you can get, the bigger the market there is.” Degani said the U.S. is looking at two major spectrum auctions next year -- 2.5 and 3.45-3.55 GHz. There’s a lot of spectrum available at 2.5 “that’s really unused right now and underused and could do a lot of things both in urban and rural America,” he said.

Rules for the 3.45-3.55 GHz band, the subject of a Further NPRM approved by commissioners last month (see 2009300034), must reserve a place for DOD, Cooper said. DOD “agreed to minimize its operations in the band, to the extent possible,” he said: “To ensure the preservation of military capabilities, readiness and national security, the military still requires some set-asides. We’re talking about permanent access in a limited number of geographic locations,” as well as “periodic temporary access” in other locations.

Agencies affected, particularly DOD, are required to submit cost forecasts, due by April 16, Cooper said. “The transition plans are important because the auction must earn 110% of the transition cost” for licensing to go forward, he said. Expect DOD and NTIA industry workshops on creating coordination areas before an auction, he said.

Other countries are “also moving aggressively on midband,” and “it’s important that the U.S. is doing the same,” said Rachael Bender, Verizon associate general counsel. “The leadership of FCC and NTIA are crucial to making that happen,” she said. Verizon supports the FCC’s move to make the 3.45-3.55 GHz band available at full power, for exclusive use “in the shortest time frame possible,” she said. In addition to 2.5 GHz, Bender would like an FCC exam of 1300-1350 MHz and 7 GHz for possible repurposing. “There’s no low-hanging fruit,” she said.

The current U.S. focus on midband is understandable, said Campbell Massie, GSMA advocacy manager-North America. High band is critical to 5G, “however it does lack the propagation,” she said. “Outside of city centers, it becomes harder and harder to build out and harness its full potential.” CBRS offers “a very successful model,” she said, but “we need to stay cognizant about what can be cleared and licensed, rather than defaulting always to sharing." Campbell said that given “the hunger” for midband, industry should easily meet the 110% threshold in the 3.45-3.55 GHz band.

Conference Notebook

Canada is moving into the next phase of its look at the 3.65-4.2 GHz band, taking in the same spectrum as the C band, said Chantal Davis, director-regulatory policy at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. Canada isn’t looking at compensation for satellite operators, which isn't something it has done in the past. The first 50 MHz is already used for wireless broadband as the wireless broadband service (WBS) band, with more than 320 licensees already assigned, Davis said. Some rural wireless ISPs are using it for broadband and municipalities for their communications systems, Davis said. Canada sought information on how the 3.7-4.2 GHz, which remains open because “we’re not sure that we captured everyone, and we want to make sure that we do,” she said. Canada is looking at proposals, including repurposing 330 MHz for flexible use, with a 20 MHz guard band, and proposed moving fixed satellite service operators to the upper 200 MHz by 2023. Canada also is considering whether to reallocate the WBS, with two proposed time frames -- 2023 for urban and 2025 for other areas. Canada also proposed 80 MHz for shared use in the band.

Mexico has been working hard to identify spectrum for wireless broadband, said Alejandro Navarrete Torres, head of the Radioelectric Spectrum Unit at the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones. Focus includes 2.3 and 4.1-4.5 GHz, he said, noting Mexico is making an additional 341 MHz available for 5G. “We recognize that we are going to have an interesting challenge to coordinate all these frequencies with the United States” along the lengthy border, he said. “Some problems are quite tough,” and the U.S. faces unique challenges, he said: “We do not have the same problems with radars in Mexico that the U.S. has.”