A New Paradigm for Spectrum Sharing between Wireless Communications and Radio Astronomy

加强无线电频谱接入（enhanced Access to Radio Spectrum）计划是根据2010年《关于启动无线宽带革命的总统备忘录》设立的，该备忘录是国会授权的国家宽带计划的一部分。它在2010年国情咨文和后来的2012年中产阶级税收减免和创造就业法案（超过三分之一的法案涉及无线电频谱），PCAST 2012年报告[总统科学技术顾问委员会]（呼吁大幅增加频谱共享的使用）和2013年总统备忘录（扩大美国在无线创新方面的领导地位）中被引用。该项目的目的是确定大胆的新概念，这些概念有可能有助于显著提高无线电频谱利用效率，保护无源传感服务，并使传统上服务不足的美国人从当前和未来的无线产品和服务中受益。这对国家经济的影响很大，正如2015年初FCC以超过450亿美元的价格竞标65MHz频谱所看到的那样。它将使科学、工程、工业、民用和军事用户能够使用射频（RF）频谱。主动无线系统（发射和接收射频信号），如蜂窝无线通信已经在我们的社会中产生了许多进步，并对国民经济产生了巨大的影响。无源无线系统（通常只接收非常微弱的信号），如射电天文学和地球探测遥感，为地球环境、我们的太阳系和宇宙提供了经济和科学上重要的观测（例如，天气预报、观测可能影响地球基础设施和生命的太阳耀斑）。这两种类型的系统对人类的成长都起着至关重要的作用，因此需要适应它们的进步。然而，它们的频谱需求在很大程度上是不断增长和冲突的，从有源系统到无源系统的射频干扰（RFI）日益受到关注。这就需要一种新的频谱接入和共享模式，以满足未来的需求。这个项目在蜂窝无线通信（CWC）和射电天文系统（RAS）之间提出了这样一个范例。该项目在CWC和RAS之间开发了一种新的时频分频谱接入方式，不仅解决了频谱需求冲突，而且增加了两个系统的频谱接入机会。该项目不是依靠RAS望远镜的地理隔离来避免RFI，而是通过使用大量分布式辅助射电望远镜（dart），引入了CWC和RAS之间的地理共存范式。非常大规模的dart将抑制RFI问题，并可能使RAS的能力实现巨大飞跃。此外，该项目还开发了新的自适应电路和信号处理算法，以有效地处理RFI问题。简而言之，本项目通过CWC和RAS之间的协调，为CWC和RAS的频谱接入制定了跨学科互利的技术解决方案和框架。CWC可以获得更多的频谱接入机会，从而实现更多的无线服务/应用和新的商业机会，从而扩大和丰富国民经济。RAS将确保更多的频谱访问机会和增强的天文观测能力，从而加速其对基础科学、宇宙知识和通过空间环境信息保护地球生命的贡献。

This EARS (Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum) program was founded in response to the 2010 Presidential Memorandum on Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution mandated by Congress as part of the National Broadband Plan. It was referenced in 2010 State of the Union and later on the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (More than 1/3 of the bill deals with radio spectrum), the PCAST 2012 Report [President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology] (which calls for vastly increased use of spectrum sharing) and the 2013 Presidential memo (Expanding America's Leadership in Wireless Innovation). The aim of this program is to identify bold new concepts with the potential to contribute to significant improvements in the efficiency of radio spectrum utilization, protection of passive sensing services, and in the ability for traditionally underserved Americans to benefit from current and future wireless-enabled goods and services. The impact is large on the economics of the Nation as seen on the last FCC bidding of 65MHz of the spectrum for over $45 billion early in 2015. It will enable access to science, engineering, industry, civilian and military users of the radio frequency (RF) spectrum.Active wireless systems (which transmit and receive RF signals) such as cellular wireless communications have generated numerous advancements in our society and tremendous impacts on the national economy. Passive wireless systems (which only receive usually very faint signals) such as radio astronomy and earth exploration remote sensing have provided economically and scientifically important observations of Earth's environment, our solar system and the cosmos (e.g., weather forecasting, observation of solar flares which could affect infrastructure and lives on Earth). Both types of systems play crucial roles for the growth of humanity, thus their advancements need to be accommodated. However, their spectrum requirements are growing and conflicting to a large degree, and radio frequency interference (RFI) from active systems to passive systems is an increasing concern. This calls for a new paradigm of spectrum access and sharing that can cope with the future's needs. This project proposes such a paradigm between cellular wireless communications (CWC) and radio astronomy systems (RAS). The project develops a novel time and frequency division spectrum access between CWC and RAS, which not only resolves the spectrum requirement conflict but also enhances spectrum access opportunities for both systems. Instead of relying on the geographical isolation of RAS telescopes to avoid RFI, the project introduces a geographical coexistence paradigm between CWC and RAS through the use of a large number of distributed auxiliary radio telescopes (DARTs). The very large scale DARTs will suppress the RFI issue and potentially enable a quantum leap in RAS's capabilities. In addition, the project develops novel adaptive circuitry and signal processing algorithms to handle the RFI issue efficiently. In brief, this project develops an interdisciplinary and mutually-beneficial technical solution and framework for spectrum access of CWC and RAS through coordination between them. CWC could gain more spectrum access opportunities which will enable more wireless services/applications and new business opportunities, thus expanding and enriching the national economy. RAS will secure more spectrum access opportunities and enhanced astronomical observation capabilities, thus accelerating its contributions to the fundamental science, knowledge of the universe, and protection of lives on Earth through space environmental information.