STTR Phase I: Technical, Economic, and Regulatory Evaluation and Demonstration of Policy-based Dynamic Spectrum Access-Enabled Broadband Wireless Communications Networks

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will demonstrate the technical and commercial feasibility of the near-term innovative Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) technology to efficiently share spectrum resources with legacy Federal systems. Increasing spectrum demand along with years of growing regulatory support for innovative wireless technologies like DSA presents a unique opportunity to show how spectrum sharing approaches and technologies can wring abundance from scarcity by finding ways to use spectrum more efficiently. The objectives of this research are to quantify the cost/benefit tradeoffs and validate the regulatory and system requirements for sensing-based, geo-location and hybrid broadband systems that can coexist with Federal users. The project will consist of technical and economic modeling and simulations of several policy-based, DSA-enabled system configurations under a wide range of scenarios in selected Federal bands currently under regulatory review for potential reallocation. It will create detailed spectrum sharing system design documents that include comprehensive entrant and incumbent user requirements, architectures and costs (including initial testing, validation and transaction costs, incremental capital costs, implementation costs and recurring operational costs). It will culminate with a demonstration plan to field test the most cost-effective sharing approaches. This broader impact of this project will be in the multiple benefits resulting from improving spectrum efficiency, lowering costs and fostering American innovation. Enabling spectrum sharing accelerates by 5 to 10 years the transition process through proven approaches that allow co-existence of new and incumbent systems. DSA-enabled spectrum sharing on both a geographic and temporal basis greatly increases the overall capacity of broadband wireless systems. This technology also facilitates band clearing in Federal bands, where appropriate, and maximizes spectrum access where relocation of Federal incumbents would be too costly or infeasible. This avoids having to redirect funds from auction proceeds to cover Federal government efforts in planning, redesigning and moving every existing system. It also relieves the pressure to auction more exclusive use spectrum licenses by enabling innovative unlicensed, light licensing and other models. When Federal systems must be relocated, DSA allows them to gain equivalent or improved spectrum access in other bands. This project will greatly improve the understanding of DSA-enabled spectrum sharing by identifying stakeholder requirements and cost effective solutions. It will prove that these capabilities are feasible and benefits real by producing cost data for different DSA approaches, allowing operators, regulators and incumbents to understand whether costs align with bandwidth gains.