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 and soon 5G mobile and fixed wireless broadband networks (much like they run private Wi-Fi networks) without the need to spend on 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) between commercial and Federal/DoD incumbent users.
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 radar systems) followed by Priority Access License (PAL) auction winners, which are granted interference protections for 70 MHz of the 150 MHz, and capped up to 40 MHz each, and lastly, General Authorized Access (GAA) users. While GAA users are not provided with any interference protections, their access is coordinated by a cloud-based spectrum access system (SAS). This spectrum management and coordination is performed by FCC approved Spectrum Access System (SAS) administrators via cloud-based systems and include companies such as Amdocs, Commscope, Federated Wireless, Google and Sony. Each university private CBRS network operator would register their network with a single SAS administrator in order to gain access to CBRS spectrum. SAS registration and fees apply and entails commercial agreements with each SAS administrator.
Private LTE networks provide a full mobile and fixed wireless 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 neutral host network access and macro off-load business models with traditional and emerging Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Cable Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) .
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.
This group has three sub groups with different focuses:
Areas of Focus:
Areas of Focus:
Arizona State University
Boston University
Colorado University
Duke University
Princeton University
Sun Corridor Network
Texas A&M University
University at Buffalo
University of Delaware
University of Delaware
University of Kentucky
University of North Carolina
University of Oregon
University of Virginia
Utah Education Network
Virginia Tech
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.
Documents currently available to group members only.