Spectrum Management

Protecting a Vital, Limited Resource

Overview

Many Federal agencies use radio frequency spectrum to perform vital operations. NTIA manages the Federal government's use of spectrum, ensuring that America's domestic and international spectrum needs are met while making efficient use of this limited resource. NTIA carries out this responsibility with assistance and advice from the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee and by:

establishing and issuing policy regarding allocations and regulations governing the Federal spectrum use;
developing plans for the peacetime and wartime use of the spectrum;
preparing for, participating in, and implementing the results of international radio conferences;
assigning frequencies;
maintaining spectrum use databases;
reviewing Federal agencies' new telecommunications systems and certifying that spectrum will be available;
providing the technical engineering expertise needed to perform specific spectrum resources assessments and automated computer capabilities needed to carry out these investigations;
participating in all aspects of the Federal government's communications related emergency readiness activities; and
participating in Federal government telecommunications and automated information systems security activities.

Moving Closer to Making Spectrum Sharing at 3.5 GHz a Reality

November 5, 2018

In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) to accommodate sharing in the 3.5 GHz band between incumbent users — mostly Navy radar systems — and a variety of new commercial users.

The technology that will power this sharing, a new kind of dynamic spectrum access system, didn’t exist when the FCC adopted the rulemaking three years ago. To help test this technology as it was being developed, the FCC sought out the independent technical expertise of NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS). The data gathered via these laboratory tests will be provided to the FCC to support its certification processes for eventual CBRS field operations.

We have made significant progress in our work on testing the two technical linchpins of these CBRS systems: Environmental Sensing Capability (ESC) sensors and Spectrum Access Systems (SAS). The ESC sensors are designed to alert the associated SASs when Federal radar systems are operating in the band, so that the SAS can take immediate action to manage the CBRS devices to prevent interference.

ITS has released a study guide for Spectrum Access System testing via GitHub. The guide consists of samples of tests that will be conducted on Spectrum Access Systems. The tests will include a wide variety of scenarios and situations to test the systems’ ability to manage CBRS devices.

Topics

Institute for Telecommunication Sciences

Spectrum Management

3550-3650 MHz