What is CBRS in the wireless world?

Citizens Broadband Radio Service is shared wireless spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band, which could have significant landscape implications for building dedicated LTE networks as well as expanding public 4G and 5G services.

First, CBRS is an acronym for Citzens Broadband Radio Service, and for IT professionals, the result is that it enables enterprises to every build their own private 4G/5G networks and improve service providers' 4G/5G offerings. Here's a primer on CBRS - because you'll want to know this.

CB, just like in the history of B radio?

Pi, good buddy, this has nothing to do with the Citizens' Band radio service used by truckers for voice communications, which is located in the 27MH slow band in the U.S. CBRS is located in the 3.5GHz band.

So what is CBRS?

CBRS is a radio spectrum band from 3.5GHz to 3.7GHz, which the FCC has designated as shared between three tiers of users

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households, preferred licensees, and general licenses, which are lightly licensed.

The incumbents are those who have historically held exclusive rights to the band, namely satellite earth stations and the U.S. Navy. Last year, priority licenses were auctioned off to allow licenses or under - specific counties to use the band as long as they do not interfere with the existing band and tolerate possible interference in the existing band. (Internet service providers such as Verizon and Comcast (Comcast) spent most of the money paid in the auction.) In general, authorized access allows users to use the bands as long as they do not interfere with the other two categories of users.

Who will prevent interference?

Sensor networks - environmental sensing capabilities (ESC) - detect CBRS use. Devices that want to use the CBRS bands first request a cloud-based spectrum access system (SAS) to reserve unused channels in a specific geographic area. If the channel is free, the SAS can grant the request. When a device that has been granted access to a channel has finished using it, the channel is put back into the pool from which the SAS can draw to grant further requests.

How did the 3.5 GHz band become available?

The release of the 3550-3700 MHz band stems from the FCC's release of the 2010 National Broadband Plan, which was intended to provide an additional 50MHz of spectrum for new mobile uses. the FCC targeted the 3.5 GHz band (referred to as the ""innovation band"") in rules released in April 2015 and reaffirmed those rules about a year later. rules. However, some details on implementation remain up in the air as operators disagree among themselves on some technical details - some smaller operators want the opportunity to expand their 5G coverage without purchasing fully licensed spectrum and therefore advocate allowing higher power access to points within CBRS, while larger The FCC has expressed interest in hearing full comments from both sides.

Who will use this spectrum?

Operators look to use it to expand the coverage and capacity of their 4GLTE and 5G networks. After all, they are facing an ongoing spectrum crunch. But wireline operators looking to enter the wireless space also want to get in on the action, as do various managed service providers, including entities such as building management companies that need to communicate wirelessly with equipment in the field. What's more, companies can use the spectrum to build their own 4G and 5G networks, through which they can connect IoT devices, including factory robots. These services are available both indoors and outdoors.

Which applications will use CBRS?

Service providers are expected to use CBRS to replace last-mile fiber access to customer sites, provide fixed wireless services, and even point-to-multipoint connections. Enterprises and hosted service providers can use it for IoT connectivity or even for Wi-Fi replacement or supplemental services. LTE services can reach up to 1 Gbps indoors and may reach 5 to 10 times faster when used outdoors with line-of-sight access. 5G may be 10 times faster than LTE.

How expensive is it?

CBRS proponents say the technology is much more economical than distributed antenna systems, and they believe the speed and consistency of service will be much better than bang-bang. CBRS proponents also say that the availability of cheaper spectrum will support imaginative new services. Microsoft Azure has marketed it as a connection to the cloud.