Transforming Spectrum Sharing: NTIA Seeks to Fund Innovation in Software Defined Radio Technology
By: Charles Cooper, Associate Administrator, Office of Spectrum Management
NTIA’s new round of funding from the $1.5 billion Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund presents a unique opportunity to advance spectrum-sensing technology, in turn potentially driving more efficient use of airwaves for the public and private sectors.
Spectrum sharing is an effective way to increase commercial access to spectrum resources while protecting and enhancing government operations. Spectrum-sensing technology incorporated into a sharing system or framework could protect incumbent operators while making more spectrum available for other beneficial uses. These sensor technologies would be able to detect and identify government radio signals among all of the various radio signals and avoid interfering with them.
One objective of this funding opportunity’s second focus area is to propel the development of advanced Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology that meets the needs of modern mobile networks. Projects funded under this initiative will target several critical advancements: