EARS: Spectrum Efficiency Analysis using Multisite Spectrum Observatory Network

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The need for increased RF spectrum access for wireless broadband applications continues within the commercial and government user domains. Since the usable RF spectrum is fully allocated, the only options available are to: a) increase the efficiency of current spectrum uses; b) re-purpose spectrum to higher value uses; or c) institute spectrum sharing. While the FCC has a database of authorized, licensed spectrum users, the ultimate success of any of these options depends on knowledge of actual RF spectrum utilization in time, frequency, and space. While snap-shot surveys of RF utilization have been performed, and long-term observations of RF use have been made at single locations, the impact of incorporating the spatial dimension to both improve the accuracy of these estimates and model medium-scale geographic variations has not been fully explored. Given the need to obtain mappings and models of the temporal and spatial variations of the RF environment with sufficiently high fidelity to estimate, characterize, and model spectrum utilization, the resulting research objectives are: 1) create a sufficiently low-cost and scalable approach to generating and accessing the necessary high quality RF dataset; 2) provide new methods for analyzing, modeling, and visualizing the resulting large, multi-dimensional information base; and 3) model spectrum activity to test the feasibility of spectrum sharing in candidate bands in order to facilitate decision making and innovation in spectrum repurposing and sharing.