Here we are in a brand-new year the same way we were at this time last year, and one thing we can likely all agree on is that they sure do go by quickly. As is always the case a lot is being made of what to expect in the digital communication world for the coming year, and in many ways it is a lot of the usual suspects in the list but with more in the way of even more advances. We specialize in web hosting in Canada here at 4GoodHosting, and we took the chance a few blog entries back to talk about what might be seen with advances in web hosting for 2023.
But as is always the way we like to talk about the industry at-large and beyond quite often with our blog here, and that’s what we will be doing again here considering the ongoing shift to 5G continues to be a forefront newsworthy topic as we all look at what might be a part of the coming year. Every person that has major newfound success nearly always has some behind-the-scenes individuals who have been integral to their success, and in the same way any time a new digital technology or profound new tech advancement reorients the landscape there are buttresses underneath it that not a lot of people talk about.
One of these with 5G is CBRS, and this is something that will be of interest for us in the same way it will be for any good Canadian web hosting provide. Those who like to know the ALL of what’s contributing to people being able to make better use of Web 3 technology and in doing so getting more of the websites that we make available on the World Wide Web.
So let’s get into it, and happy New Year 2023 to all of you.
Definition
CBRS is Citizens Broadband Radio Service, and it is a band (band 48) of radio frequency spectra from 3.5 GHz to 3.7 GHz with applications for incumbent users, priority access licensees, and general authorized access cases – the most common of which would be the thousands of different potential instances where software is being accessed and utilized by unlicensed users.
This band was originally reserved for use by the U.S Department of Defense, and for U.S. Navy radar systems in particular. 7+ years ago the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) named the 3.5 GHz band as the ‘innovation band’ and earmarked it for being opened up to new mobile users. It has since then evolved into CBRS.
What it has the potential to do now is an create an opportunity for unlicensed users and enterprise organizations who want to use 5G, LTE, or even 3GPP spectra to establish their own private mobile networks. This has led to the Googles, Qualcomms, Intels, Federated Wireless etc of the world to band together to form the OnGo Alliance to support CBRS implementers and adopters with development, commercialization, and adoption of LTE solutions for CBRS.
These OnGo technology, specifications, and certifications ensure interoperability of network components, and with them businesses have more of an ability to create services and run applications running on 4G LTE and 5G wireless networks. The greater relevance of all of this is in how this is being enabled to the extent that entirely new industries could be sprouting from this greater access to and interoperability within the best new broadband technologies.
How it Works
CBRS Band 48 is a total of 150MHz of spectrum ranging from 3.55 to 3.7 GHz. CBRS can be used for 4G LTE or for fixed or mobile 5G NR. The entire system is reliant on a series of CBRS standards that were set up and put in place by over 300 engineers and 60 different organizations working in conjunction with the FCC.
Contained within them are security measures, licensing details, and protocols that have been tested and determined to be most suitable and performing at a high level for communicating with devices. Certification programs were developed to help establish standards for installing proper CBRS deployments that follow the proper guidelines in identifying itself, as well as communicating with the necessary FCC databases for operation.
The architecture of this is very noteworthy. Each CBRS domain features a Spectrum Access System (SAS) that connects to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) databases and incumbent reporting systems. The SAS will also bounce back and forth info with Environmental Sensing Capability (ESC) systems that automatically detect radar use in the area.
Components that support a CBRS antenna or antenna array is the Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device (CBSD). CBSDs register with an SAS and request spectrum grants and they also pass along their unique geolocation, height, indoor or outdoor status, along with a unique call sign registered with the FCC. All of this is done within HTTPS protocol and messages are encoded via JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).
Major Advantages
As we have stated, CBRS enables enterprise organizations to establish their own private LTE or 5G networks, and what this does is create and ‘express lane’ of sorts where wireless connectivity for enterprise applications that require wider coverage, interference-free wireless spectrum, and guaranteed service level agreement (SLAs) for network performance metrics such as latency and throughput have those needs met to the extent they need to be.
The most prominent CBRS benefits – at this point – are looking likely they will be the ability to:
- Deliver up to 10x wider coverage, indoors or outdoors
- Offer superior SIM authentication and authentication of the type that relies on centralized encryption, by default
- Enabling mobile devices handover between access points at an unnoticeable speed
- Better scaling of digital automation initiatives as they invest in new generation of use cases with computer vision sensors, automated mobile robots (AMR), voice and video communication tools that require real-time exchanges to make computations and provide data that can be relied on for making major decisions
