CBRS

The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA) urged the FCC to move forward on key parts of its remaining work on the 3.5 GHz shared band, in a letter posted in docket 12-354. A year ago, the FCC approved final rules establishing a three-tiered access and sharing model between federal and nonfederal incumbents, priority access licensees (PALs) in the 3550-3650 GHz part of the band and general authorized access users (see 1504170055) in the band. Industry has demonstrated interest in the citizens band radio service spectrum (CBRS) in a number of developments since, DSA said. “These include a recent successful test deployment of a private LTE network, a rural broadband project that demonstrates the types of investments and innovation that private enterprise has made since the adoption of the rules, and technological advancements for improving the indoor cellular experience," DSA said. “These and other developments have been made primarily by the 42 companies participating in the CBRS Alliance.” Now the FCC needs to move, the letter said. DSA urged the FCC to develop rules for a PAL auction and certify the spectrum access systems and environmental sensing capability of operators who will help manage sharing “as soon as possible in order to open the 3.5 GHz band for companies poised to deploy their networks.” DSA also reacted to reports the FCC will revise rules for the band (see 1703160029). “Finally, in light of the recent news that there may be interest at the Commission in considering changes to the Part 96 framework, we also caution that injecting regulatory uncertainty at this late stage will have the effect of reducing or stranding current investment, deterring future investment, and ultimately setting back active use of the 3.5 GHz band to square one,” DSA said.

Changes to rules for the 3.5 GHz shared band appear to be on a fast track at the FCC, with Commissioner Mike O’Rielly driving the process, industry and agency officials said. O’Rielly asked the industry about potential changes to the rules, the officials said. But he's expected to push only limited changes. Wi-Fi advocates warn that more sweeping changes could mean a slowdown in the launch of the band, a multiple-year focus for the FCC.

The Wireless Bureau said it started the four-month window for incumbent licensees in the 3650–3700 MHz band to file supplemental information required to define their grandfathered wireless protection zone as the FCC launches shared use of the 3.5 GHz band. The order on the Citizens Broadband Radio Service allowed for protection of the grandfathered incumbents in the nearby band. “The deadline for filing an application to be afforded protection is August 7,” the bureau said in a Friday public notice. “Licensees who do not meet this deadline may continue to operate, but will not be afforded protection from interference caused by new CBRS operations.” The FCC approved the initial 3.5 GHz NPRM in 2012 (see 1212130044), setting up an experimental three-tiered access and sharing model made up of federal and nonfederal incumbents, priority access licenses and general authorized access users. Also Friday, the bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology established a “second wave” deadline for proposals from prospective spectrum access system administrator environmental sensing capability operators in the band. Companies that want to join others already approved have until May 31 to apply, a PN said.

Comcast and Charter Communications joining the CBRS Alliance will help create interest among major handset vendors for supporting the 3.5 GHz band, with end-user device availability being one of the issues that will dictate when the band is used commercially for mobile, said CableLabs Vice President-Core Innovations Pete Smyth in a blog post Thursday. He said commercial rollout also will be dictated by the availability of spectrum access systems (SAS), environmental sensing capacity (ESC) and commercial grade network equipment. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are looking at LTE deployment in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service band, he said. With Samsung's upcoming Galaxy 8 supposedly supporting band 42 and Sony announcing support of band 42 in an upcoming handset, "all of this bodes well for 2018," CableLabs said. It said SASs and ESCs are expected to be operational by year's end, which points to full spectrum availability next year.

NetComm Wireless joined the CBRS Alliance, a group focused on the development and adoption of LTE-based solutions in the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service band, the company said Tuesday.

Google Access reported progress on spectrum-sharing efforts in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service band (3.55-3.7 GHz). Access completed testing of consumer devices connecting to CBRS base stations and formed a trusted tester program to test interoperability between the base stations and the Access spectrum access system, wrote Mobility Product Lead Mathew Varghese in a Friday blog post. CBRS allows large venues to deploy private wireless LTE networks at low cost, he said. Access tested phones using Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 Gibabit LTE and Spreadtrum SoCs and mobile Wi-Fi hot spots by Juni and Infomark, it said. The mobile hot spots are expected to come to market before the phones, he said. The trusted tester program includes Nokia, Juni, ZTE, Sercomm, Ericsson and Ruckus Wireless, Varghese said.

CBRS Alliance founding members Nokia and Federated Wireless said they’re working together on an LTE technology for the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service band. Nokia will provide indoor and outdoor CBRS small cells through its Flexi Zone solution, and shared-spectrum company Federated is offering a cloud-based spectrum controller giving operators a “cost-effective and dynamic option for accessing this new spectrum,” the companies said in a Friday news release. “The CBRS 3.5 GHz band provides much needed spectrum to meet the rapidly growing demand for wireless network capacity, while addressing potential interference and coordination issues with new spectrum sharing and management techniques. Operators have taken notice, and several US operators have escalated their plans to trial the new technology as they continue to densify their mobile networks and prepare for 5G.”

The FCC moved another step closer to opening the 3.5 GHz band for shared use, conditionally approving seven companies to be the first spectrum access system (SAS) operators, a key next step. The agency labeled the band the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) and it has been a major focus of the agency since 2012 (see 1212130044). But industry officials say many questions remain about the viability of the CBRS. Among them is what some see as the likelihood the FCC’s top engineer, Julius Knapp, will soon depart, leaving no clear successor.

Federated Wireless said it demo'd interoperability between its spectrum access system and an SAS developed by Alphabet’s Access team. Federated said the demonstration shows the workability of the FCC’s shared spectrum regime in the 3.5 GHz band. The agency labeled the band the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS). “Federated Wireless and Alphabet’s Access team demonstrated operational interoperability for their independently developed SASs, which illustrates a necessary step for industry readiness to launch a commercial shared spectrum service while validating the SAS-to-SAS interface protocol defined by the Wireless Innovation Forum,” said a Thursday Federated news release. “This is a requirement for a multi-SAS administered CBRS band that could enable higher data rate LTE access for mobile devices nationwide.” Sepehr Mehrabanzad, Federated senior vice president-engineering, said “all required building blocks are coming together effectively as demonstrated today and further indication of our readiness towards commercialization of a shared spectrum solution.”

The Wireless Innovation Forum said its members approved its Spectrum Sharing Committee’s signaling protocols and procedures to be used in the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band for spectrum access systems -- and spectrum access system (SAS) interfaces. “These standards are the first of their kind addressing the new FCC Part 96 rules for CBRS. Publication of these standards represents a major milestone for enabling U.S. commercialization of the band,” the Winn Forum said in a Tuesday news release. Elements include SAS-SAS prerequisites, SAS-SAS procedures, SAS-SAS synchronization, message encoding and transport and parameters of SAS-SAS messages, the forum said. The new administration is expected by some to make changes to the rules for the 3.5 GHz band (see 1611180037).