Standardizing Mid-Band Propagation Models - Institute for ...

ITS: The Nation’s Spectrum and Communications Lab
 Realizing the full potential of telecommunications to drive a new era of innovation, development, and
 productivity
 ITS Institute for Telecommunication Sciences

2021 NTIA Spectrum Policy Symposium

Standardizing Mid-Band Propagation
Models
 September 21, 2021
 Michael Cotton
 mcotton@ntia.gov
 720-552-7970

 Boulder, Colorado • www.its.bldrdoc.gov

Background
 ITU-R Study Group 3 (Radiowave Propagation):
 ITS leads process of technical inputs, negotiation,
 and development of ITU Recommendations
 National spectrum policy and management: ITS
 provides technical expertise to build consensus
 on appropriate propagation models
 • NTIA-led Inter-agency (3.5 GHz and 3.4 GHz JWG)
 spectrum-sharing feasibility studies
 • Industry-government spectrum-sharing technology
 development, e.g., CBRS SAS and ESC
 • Inter-agency spectrum-sharing technology development,
 e.g., DSO SST&D AWS-3 portal

 ITS: The Nation’s Spectrum and Communications Lab
 Boulder, Colorado • www.its.bldrdoc.gov
 ITS Institute for Telecommunication Sciences

 9/21/2021 2

Use Case: Interference Analysis I1 I2

 dh
 Long-distance over-the- (a + b)
 dx
 horizon propagation involving Ro ≅ d1 –x dv=dxdhdw
 terrain diffraction and R ≅ d2 +x

 troposphere forward a+b≅
 2 +ℎ2
 R
 Ro h
 scattering
 r
 Clutter propagation loss due
 † a ho
 to man-made and natural ao A2
 A1
 obstacles x ≡ x1 -x ≡ x2
 d1 d2
 Propagation models are d
 statistical

 ITS: The Nation’s Spectrum and Communications Lab
 Boulder, Colorado • www.its.bldrdoc.gov
 ITS Institute for Telecommunication Sciences

 9/21/2021 3

Overarching Philosophy
 https://github.com/NTIA

 Bring the spectrum community together
 in an open collaborative way
 Focus collective effort to improve
 modeling Software
 Updates
 Maintain a rigorous scientific process for
 improvements
 Analyze Community
 Engagement

 ITS: The Nation’s Spectrum and Communications Lab
 Boulder, Colorado • www.its.bldrdoc.gov
 ITS Institute for Telecommunication Sciences

 9/21/2021 4

ITS Propagation Code Library (proplib)
 Unified Code Base
 • Common across all languages/platforms
 • Wrapper code to expose functionality into
 additional languages
 Trusted Foundation
 • Theoretical underpinnings backed by
 publications
 • Software integrity through code signing and
 package distribution
 Community Engagement
 • Google/WInnForum GitHub interactions
 • ICAO adopting P.528 and requesting
 improvements
 • Ofcom Switzerland pull request for LFMF

 ITS: The Nation’s Spectrum and Communications Lab
 Boulder, Colorado • www.its.bldrdoc.gov
 ITS Institute for Telecommunication Sciences

 9/21/2021 5

Software Maturity Pipeline
 Development
 •Actively being developed
 Internal Public
 •Locally published (restricted users) Development
 Production Release
 Internal Production
 • MPM • Ohiopyle • ITM
 •Suitable for stable development • P.1812 • IF-77 • eHata
 •Published NTIA-wide • P.526 • PropCore • P.528
 • P.676 • LFMF-
 Public Release • P.835 SmoothEarth
 •Fully open-source software • P.2108
 •Publicly supported

 ITS: The Nation’s Spectrum and Communications Lab
 Boulder, Colorado • www.its.bldrdoc.gov
 ITS Institute for Telecommunication Sciences

 9/21/2021 6

New Mid-Band Propagation Model Initiative
 Sponsor: DOD/CIO (Spectrum Relocation  Three phases:
 Fund) • Phase 1 (FY22): Planning, Initial Measurements,
 Prototyping, and Program Design
 Goal: To establish an improved and
 • Phase 2: Extended Capability Measurements,
 community-accepted mid-band (i.e., 3100–
 and Data Analysis
 4200 MHz) radio frequency propagation • Phase 3: Model Development
 model framework to predict basic
  Approach:
 transmission loss for a diverse range of link
 • Model development priorities will drive
 geometries, e.g., clutter, terrain, air/ground, experimental design and measurement
 over-water, long distance requirements
 Period of performance: 5 years, start Oct 21 • Experimental results and measurement
 ITS Program Manager: Billy Kozma
 validations will drive model updates
 (wkozma@ntia.gov, 303-497-6082)

 ITS: The Nation’s Spectrum and Communications Lab
 Boulder, Colorado • www.its.bldrdoc.gov
 ITS Institute for Telecommunication Sciences

 9/21/2021 7

Expanded Outreach
Red Team Propagation Stakeholders Group
 Propagation expert group consisting of broad  Open webinars, meetings at events, and
 coalition organizations across government, Requests for Information (RFI)
 industry, and academia  Purpose:
 Purpose: Peer review and collaboration to • Provide updates on modeling and measurement
 build consensus during all stages of program plans, conclusive results from on-going
 execution experiments, updates on resultant propagation
 • Debate model development priorities codes
 • Review measurement plans and results • Get feedback and recommendations from
 • Provide critical review of modeling progress community
 • Develop proplib use cases and end-user apps
 • Contribute in-kind and complimentary theory
 and data when available

 ITS: The Nation’s Spectrum and Communications Lab
 Boulder, Colorado • www.its.bldrdoc.gov
 ITS Institute for Telecommunication Sciences

 9/21/2021 8