Wireless Innovation Forum Issues First-Ever Spectrum Coexistence Survey

Survey will initially cover the complex U.S. mid-band spectrum

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Wireless Innovation Forum (WInnForum) has released the first-ever survey to better understand spectrum coexistence based on the experiences of the wireless community. The current survey is focused on coexistence within the complex U.S. 3 GHz mid-band environment. The results will help determine the extent to which adjacent or intra-band interference is a problem, and, if so, whether industry should address the issues through recommendations, best practices, standards, or other works.

Mid-band spectrum in the U.S. is a patchwork of services operating in immediately adjacent spectrum bands, but under different service rules. These include the 3.45 GHz Service in 3450-3550 MHz, the Citizens Broadband Radio Service in 3550-3700 MHz, and the 3.7 GHz Service in 3700-3980 MHz. The disposition of the 3100-3450 MHz band is still being determined, but it’s likely that some amount of commercial service will be deployed in the future.

“The U.S. 3 GHz mid-band spectrum is an ideal place to study the growing challenges of spectrum coexistence as more services come online,” says Andrew Clegg, WInnForum’s Chief Technical Officer and chair of its Mid-band Sharing Working Group. “If harmful interference turns out not to be a significant problem, that’s great. But if it is, we’d like to know what the issues are, and how we might rectify them sooner rather than later.”

The focus of the survey is not coexistence between commercial services and incumbent users, but rather between commercial services in adjacent bands or within their own bands.

WInnForum is interested in hearing from mid-band network owners and operators whether they are receiving any suspected interference or not. The survey can be taken multiple times as conditions change, or more information becomes available, to allow WInnForum to identify trends.

Individual results of the survey will be available to WInnForum for analysis, while anonymized aggregate data may be released publicly. Responses may be submitted anonymously if desired.

The URL for the survey is https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/midband-coex.

About the Wireless Innovation Forum

Established in 1996 and supported by Platinum Sponsor Thales, the Wireless Innovation Forum (SDR Forum Version 2.0) is a non-profit mutual benefit corporation dedicated to advocating for spectrum innovation and advancing radio technologies that support essential or critical communications worldwide. Members bring a broad base of experience in Software Defined Radio (SDR), Cognitive Radio (CR) and Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) technologies in diverse markets and at all levels of the wireless value chain to address emerging wireless communications requirements. To learn more about The Wireless Innovation Forum, its meetings and membership benefits, visit www.WirelessInnovation.org.