NSF SII-NRDZ HCRO-NRDZ Field Deployment

Project Overview:

Radio Frequency Interference Graphic
The partnership of the 91¸£ÀûÉç (CU), the University of California at Berkeley (Berkeley), the Hat Creek Radio Observatory (HCRO) / SETI Institute and Google collaboratively are working on the Radio Astronomy Dynamic Satellite Interference and Spectrum Sharing (RADYSIS) project, which directly addresses the related problems of protecting passive users while enabling secure, dynamic spectrum sharing between passive and active systems. The research, prototyping, and field-testing activities in this proposal will provide an example National Radio Dynamic Zone (NRDZ) for Radio Astronomy (RA), satellite-based Earth sensing, and general research in spectrum sharing and advanced communications. The approach is to integrate the capabilities of a certified Spectrum Access System (SAS) with a database of satellite orbital and RF characteristics to enable dynamic coordination of spectrum usage between radio astronomy and satellite systems. The field-testing activities provide the opportunity to test and evolve an automated spectrum sharing system that can explore various spectrum sharing methodologies.

Project Goals:

SETI Satellites
The RADYSIS Prototype activities build upon the original NSF SWIFT University of Colorado Passive and Active Spectrum Sharing (NSF Award #2030233) key objectives:

• Analysis and characterization of RF noise with respect to the environment to identify patterns.

• Explore new approaches to dynamic spectrum sharing between passive & active services.

• Quantitative analysis of spectrum sharing mechanisms between passive and active services.

• Explore approaches to optimize the efficiency and security of dynamic spectrum sharing.

• Exploration of operational mechanisms for a National Radio Dynamic Zone (NRDZ).

Ìý

The overarching project goal is to prototype and deploy an automated spectrum sharing system for field trials at HCRO as an example NRDZ that will improve spectrum access for terrestrial RA facilities and for low-earth-orbit-observing (e.g., EESS) passive satellites.ÌýThe RADYSIS high-level plan is to:

• Design and deploy the in-orbit EESS passive satellite spectrum sharing system.

• Design and deploy the RA dynamic protection spectrum sharing system.

• Evaluation and evolution of deployments at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory.

Ìý

The RADYSIS Project will make multiple specific contributions to the scientific community, including:

• Dynamic protection for RA to mitigate RF interference (RFI) from satellite transmissions.

• Bi-lateral spectrum sharing between RA and mobile broadband cellular services.

• Mitigation of interference to satellites via spectrum sharing with terrestrial wireless providers.

• Deployment of spectrum sharing prototype systems to (1) protect RA terrestrial observatories, and (2) protect low earth orbit (LEO) passive earth-observing satellites from increasing interference.

• Tools and metrics for quantitative analysis of dynamic spectrum sharing effectiveness.

• Processes for optimizing the effectiveness and security of dynamic spectrum sharing.

• Preliminary operational definition and requirements for a NRDZ.

• Lessons-learned for the general NRDZ research community as an example NRDZ site.

Public accessibility to RF noise measurement studies - A cloud-based architecture will be utilized to host a research community Open RF Data Set repository and provide tools for community analytical purposes to encourage community-wide collaboration. RADYSIS will perform and publish baseline RF noise surveys that can be analyzed and built upon by a larger community. RADYSIS will enable collaborative measurement, analysis, and characterization of RF noise, and long-term analysis of RF noise trends.Ìý

Dynamic spectrum sharing between passive and active systems -ÌýMany instances of dynamic spectrum sharing exist, ranging from the local sharing between low power systems such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, to the more recent sharing between broadband services and radars. This is spectrum sharing between active services, and relies on sensing transmissions, which is not possible with passive systems such as radio telescopes. As spectrum becomes increasingly scarce, passive systems are likely to lose exclusive allocations and will be forced to share. RADYSIS will prototype and deploy dynamic sharing mechanisms and quantitatively evaluate applicability to bi-lateral spectrum sharing. RADYSIS will include earth-orbiting, passive-sensing, EESS satellites into a generalized spectrum sharing architecture.Ìý

Evolution towards the Definition of an NRDZ -ÌýAn NRDZ is effectively a geographic region within which bi-lateral spectrum sharing takes place. The research performed at the HCRO/SETI facility on bi-lateral spectrum sharing will enable preliminary definition of the requirements and operating procedures for the NRDZ community. There is an important need to integrate the manual policy and regulations process to support NRDZ stakeholders as a capability of the automated system – this is a challenge to be addressed.

The research and engineering domain -ÌýThe RADYSIS results will improve the ability of RA to operate in environments with large amounts of radio frequency interference, particularly as RFI from satellite constellations increases and as RA instrumentation bandwidths increase beyond the traditional protected bands. RADYSIS will impact the commercial sector, as RADYSIS analyses and experiments on spectrum sharing will provide data and tools to organizations developing/deploying new systems – and upgrading existing systems – that will be required to share spectrum.Ìý

The education domain -ÌýOver the foreseeable future, the demand for RF engineers and scientists is expected to increase. Similarly, issues with RF noise, wireless coexistence, and spectrum sharing will become more prevalent and more complex. RADYSIS will organize the best practices and lessons learned from the project into a curriculum for educating the next generation of scientists and engineers in the basics of surveys and analyses of both RF noise and spectrum sharing. The RADYSIS team will conduct workshops on topics to bring the NRDZ and RA communities together to share knowledge. RADYSIS activity participation and results will aid to develop nationalÌýworkforce expertise.Ìý

The regulatory domain -ÌýSpectrum regulatory agencies in the U.S., the FCC and the NTIA, are grappling with spectrum sharing. The studies, analyses, simulations, experiments and site deployment conducted by RADYSIS will inform the spectrum community and the regulatory agencies in the U.S. and abroad about the effectiveness of mechanisms for dynamic spectrum sharing and bi-lateral spectrum sharing.