The Department of Defense (DoD) is looking to gain industry feedback on how the department can prototype 5G deployments and effectively use spectrum, DoD announced in a December 2 news release.
The department’s announcement serves as an advanced notice for companies to prepare for a future prototype for 5G in warehouse operations, and a prototype that can help share spectrum between airborne radar and 5G to detect any potential issues.
“Information received from feedback to [the] notice will inform the creation and issuance of formal Requests for Prototype Proposals related to testing and experimentation projects,” DoD stated.
The warehouse prototype will be tested at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Georgia, and will use 5G to manage operations safely and efficiently.
“The intended outcome of the project is a 5G-enabled military Smart Warehouse that can not only enhance efficiency and safety well beyond the limits of current processes, but also serve as a proving ground for testing, refining, and validating emerging 5G enabled technologies for large-scale military logistics operations,” the notice states.
The spectrum sharing prototype will be tested at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, and will test the overlapping of 5G and airborne radar with both active and passive techniques. The prototype will require the development of a full 5G network on the base.
“The outcome of the project will be capabilities and processes to allow radar spectrum sharing or coexistence with cooperating and non-cooperating 5G networks,” the notice states.
The request for prototypes is set to be restricted to the 260 members of the National Spectrum Consortium. In addition to the named prototype proposals, DoD noted that 5G prototypes are coming soon for two additional bases.