Group Summary
In March 2020, Internet2 and several of its members established the Future Wireless Working Group to explore areas of collaboration regarding the use of emerging wireless technologies on campuses and across the R&E community. The focus of the group has been the recently commercialized Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum and its use by campuses. CBRS presents, for the first time, the opportunity for campuses to own and operate fully private LTE mobile networks (much like they run private Wi-Fi networks) without the need for expensive spectrum licenses. This was made possible by the FCC’s adoption of a shared access model for the 150 MHz of mid-band spectrum (3550 MHz to 3700 MHz) assigned to the band.
The shared model employs dynamic spectrum management to mitigate contention across three tiers of priority. The highest priority is for Incumbent Access (IA) users of the spectrum (primarily US Navy bases) followed by Priority Access License (PAL) auction winners and lastly, General Authorized Access (GAA) users. The spectrum management is performed by one of the five FCC approved Spectrum Access System (SAS) providers via hosted web services.
Private LTE networks provide a full mobile experience including Quality of Service (QoS), seamless high-speed hand-offs, hardened security (SIM cards), low latency, longer range and less power consumption versus Wi-Fi. These capabilities allow campuses to support a full range of mission critical applications, extending their networks to remote locations, improved indoor and outdoor wireless coverage, support research activities, and potentially develop new roaming and off-load business models with traditional and emerging Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).
This working group hosts topical discussions as well as meetings with key ecosystem participants including SAS providers, CBRS equipment providers and managed service providers, with the goal of providing community recommendations and actions.
Sub Groups
This group has three sub groups with different focuses:
- Future Wireless Working Group Business Subcommittee: focused on recommendations around business and financial models.
- Future Wireless Working Group Technical Subcommittee: focused on recommendations around technical solutions.
- NET+ Future Wireless Advisory Group: focused on potential brokered service cloud offerings in the CBRS and/or 5G spaces.
How to Participate
This group is open only to Internet2 members. If you are an Internet2 member and are interested in participating in this group, please request to be added here.
Future Activities/Meetings
- Next call: TBD
Documents
Documents currently available to group members only.