By Mark Poletti, Cablelabs; Ruoyu Sun, CableLabs; Amir Hossein Fahim Raouf, North Carolina State University
The majority of usable RF spectrum is assigned to a wide variety of commercial, civil, federal, and military users. Yet vast amounts of this usable spectrum remains underutilized. Consequently, the current inventory of available spectrum cannot sufficiently address the emerging demand from consumers for our members’ mobile and Wi-Fi networks. Left alone, this commercially available spectrum shortage will lead to congestion, service degradation, and churn among mobile and Wi-Fi customers.
Additional spectrum authorizations and technologies that enable more efficient use of spectrum will be needed in order to meet the intensifying demand for wireless data services. Before specific solutions can be identified, however, it is important to obtain a meaningful understanding of the utilization patterns in existing and candidate bands.
As part of the National Spectrum Strategy, the federal government identified a number of spectrum bands currently occupied by federal users that may be available for potential sharing with commercial uses, including 3.1-3.45 GHz, 7.125-8.4 GHz, and 37.0-37.6 GHz.
To help members understand the potential in these bands, CableLabs developed a low-cost, easy to deploy, remotely operated spectrum monitoring kit that can be used to collect spectrum usage data for bands up to 6 GHz. The platform pushes logged measurements to a cloud location where the data are analyzed and results displayed on a local dashboard.
To date, CableLabs has deployed the monitoring kit at its Louisville, CO location. Initial measurementstargeted bands in the 3 GHz range, including 3.1-3.45 GHz, the Citizens Broadband Radio Service(CBRS) band which members are using for their own mobile and private wireless deployments as well as the 3.45 GHz and 3.7 GHz bands which are used for mobile and fixed wireless access services.
This paper will present the design of the spectrum monitoring kit, data analytics algorithm, and initial results. The monitoring platform has the potential to help our members assess the value of the spectrumunder study within their markets, refine their wireless business case assumptions, develop spectrum advocacy strategies, and explore technical solutions for expanding their wireless services.