CommScope received official notification from the FCC that its spectrum access system (SAS) to support the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) is now certified for initial commercial deployment.
With the notification earlier this year from the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences that its Environmental Sensing Capability (ESC) sensor passed testing, and the addition of Ruckus Networks’ Band 48 CBRS devices (or access points) and cloud services, CommScope said it is now poised to deliver on the promise of wireless coverage and capacity for in-building, public spaces and IoT.
“With the public notice from the FCC, companies can finally enter initial commercial deployment and begin to realize the value that private LTE can bring to their buildings, campuses, employees, customers and business,” said Iain Gillott, president and founder of iGR. “CommScope is demonstrating its commitment to bringing CBRS to life with a full solution consisting of CBRS access points, SAS and ESC. The industry needs an end-to-end solution to give organizations the ability to quickly, and confidently, deploy LTE-based wireless solutions.”
- In 2018, AT&T announced CommScope was selected as the SAS provider for its first 5G-ready CBRS network solution. In addition, CommScope’s SAS is in trials with other major carriers for customers in a variety of industries.
CBRS milestone: Commscope and Google pass test
The Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) has given a passing grade to a Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) Environmental Sensing Capability (ESC) system developed by CommScope and Google.
ITS, which is part of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), is the official test lab that has been tasked with confirming the performance of ESCs.
CBRS provides 150 MHz of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band in the U.S. CBRS spectrum is managed by Spectrum Access Systems (SASs) but will require an ESC network to detect federal radar operations. The ESC will alert the SASs of federal radar activity, and SASs will then reconfigure nearby CBRS devices to operate without interfering with federal operations.
“Our ESC sensor has passed all required testing for certification – demonstrating that we can detect all current and future radar waveforms and our respective SASs can protect incumbent users,” said Mat Varghese, Senior Product Manager, Wireless Services, Google. “This is an important milestone and we are looking ahead toward commercial operations in CBRS.”
