LOUISVILLE, Colo.—The broadband cable industry research consortium CableLabs, has been named by the United States Department of Commerce as the host lab for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (NTIA-ITS) 5G Challenge. 

The goal of the 5G Challenge is to help accelerate the development and widespread deployment of open 5G networks. It is designed to increase the speed of adoption of 5G open interfaces, interoperable components, and multi-vendor solutions by fostering a large, vibrant, and growing vendor community dedicated to advancing 5G interoperability towards true plug-and-play operation.

NTIA-ITS is currently engaged in the design and execution of the 5G Challenge supporting the Department of Defense, Office of the Undersecretary for Research and Development. The prize competition requires a host lab with a 5G core network, testing and measurement capabilities.

“CableLabs is honored to be the host lab for the 5G Challenge,” said Phil McKinney, president and CEO of CableLabs. “The recognition from the US Department of Commerce is a testament to CableLabs’ continued and increasing investment in mobile wireless network technologies, and particularly, our focus on open and interoperable network technologies. We are committed to ongoing research and development and interoperability testing in mobile network technologies, and we look forward to the opportunity to serve as the host lab for the 5G Challenge.” 

For the 5G Challenge, NTIA-ITS will leverage CableLabs’ state-of-the-art lab deployment of fully virtualized 5G networks, including multiple cores, multiple radio access network and new network emulation equipment. 

CableLabs is providing the standalone 5G network with the essential engineering capability to integrate multiple vendors simultaneously while testing and measuring technical performance metrics -- enabling innovators to compete in testing and validation on site.

More information about the 5G Challenge is available here. 

WASHINGTON—The federal agency managing the government’s use of the airwaves has created a spectrum-sharing portal. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration said the online interface was a crucial step toward achieving the goal of coordinating spectrum-sharing among federal and commercial users.

“The new NTIA portal fulfills an important requirement to enable sharing in the 1695-1710 MHz portion of this prime spectrum.”

The portal comprises the 1695-1710 MHz band, currently used for weather satellite downlinks, weather balloons and other environmental sensors. The 15 MHz-wide swath was one of three bands recently auction off for Advanced Wireless Services.

NTIA said it expected many of the federal incumbents eventually to relocate, but moving wasn’t feasible for meteorological satellite Earth stations in the 1695-1710 MHz band. The Federal Communications Commission responded by requiring commercial auction winners to coordinate with federal incumbents before operating in geographic areas, or “coordination zones,” around these stations, which NTIA said would continue to operate indefinitely.

NTIA said federal incumbents, including the Air Force, Army, Navy, Department of the Interior and National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, looked to NTIA ’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences to create an online spectrum coordination portal for sharing in the 1695-1710 MHz band. NTIA said a team of 10 ITS developers, documentation experts and quality assurance personnel worked for five months to develop the portal.

The platform, NTIA said, was designed to be ,“cost-efficient, modular and scalable, combining commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software into an advanced Web-based architecture.

“Hosted by NTIA, the final product is a customized Web-based database storage software solution that manages the flow of information between commercial wireless operators deploying broadband wireless networks and federal agencies who have meteorological satellite Earth station operations in the identified coordination zones.”

The portal is intended to allow incumbent licensees and commercial users to exchange information and communicate about engineering issues. It will be available seven days a week, 24 hours a day at https://rfcp.ntia.doc.gov.

“The launch of this streamlined method for the coordination of spectrum sharing between federal and non-federal users represents a significant advance towards facilitating expanded commercial use of the spectrum while ensuring federal agencies continue to have access to the airwaves they need to perform critical functions for the American people.”