Sharing Spectrum and Services in the 7–24 GHz Upper Midband

Abstract

The upper midband, spanning 7 to 24 GHz, strikes a good balance between large bandwidths and favorable propagation environments for future Sixth Generation (6G) networks. Wireless networks in the upper midband, however, will need to share the spectrum and safely coexist with a variety of incumbents, ranging from radio-location to fixed satellite services, as well as Earth exploration and sensing. In this article, we focus on potential challenges associated with operating cellular networks while coexisting with incumbents in the 7–24 GHz band, analyzing in detail the spectrum landscape and the sharing technologies and policies that can enable next-generation wireless in the upper midband. We consider dynamic spectrum sharing solutions enabled by programmable and adaptive cellular networks, but also the possibility of leveraging the cellular infrastructure for incumbent services. Our comprehensive analysis employs ray tracing and examines real-world urban scenarios to evaluate throughput, coverage tradeoffs, and the potential impact on incumbent services. Our findings highlight the advantages of frequency range (FR)-3 over FR-2 (mmWaves) and FR-1 (sub-6 GHz) in terms of coverage and bandwidth, respectively. We conclude by discussing a network architecture based on Open RAN, aimed at enabling dynamic spectrum and service sharing.