To improve collaboration and provide real-time situational updates during natural disasters, the Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is developing a private wireless 5G communications network for first responders in California in collaboration with the California National Guard. DIU will use commercially available Citizen Broadband Radio Service-based private 5G equipment for the mobile deployments.
Using personal and government-issued mobile devices, emergency responders will trial networked applications, such as push-to-talk voice, geolocation and live maps of their surroundings, while outside the range of existing cellular networks, according to Jeff Kleck, director of the Cyber and Telecommunications Portfolio at DIU. The first to arrive at the scene will bring the private network with them using a vehicle-mounted, backpack, hand-carried or wearable node. Kleck said radios are becoming obsolete and satellite phones are impractical because of the expense.
Multiple companies have teamed to provide transparent roam-in to private 5G service that does not require replacing the commercial SIM card on bring-your-own-devices, according to Army Maj. Gen. Jay M. Coggan, Commander, California State Guard. “This is critical since most apps used for communication identify the user by their phone number, and if that number changes the user loses their identity,” he said.
Nokia Innovations will provide the Defense Department with portable cellular radios in a variety of sizes and power outputs, in order to quickly blanket an area with cellular coverage. It will also provide device provisioning, edge computing and dynamic frequency allocation solutions, Kleck said. Somewear Labs wearable devices are being used to extend the mobile cellular network at the edge, allowing teams to move faster than the mobile cellular network deployment while remaining connected in the event of equipment failure by reverting to satellite network connections, Kleck said.
The California public safety project is just one of several nascent initiatives by the DoD to test and develop 5G applications for a wide variety of purposes, according to NextGov. “5G communications technology is a foundational enabler for all U.S. defense modernization programs, and vital to U.S. national and economic security,” a DoD spokesman said in a prepared statement.
Earlier this month, the DoD announced $600 million in awards for 5G experimentation and full-scale 5G testing of dual-use applications at five U.S. military test sites. Projects will include 5G-enabled augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) for mission planning and training, testing 5G-enabled smart warehouses and evaluating 5G technologies to enhance distributed command and control. AT&T will play a prominent role in several of these projects.
AT&T will develop a system to allow use of 5G connectivity with present training devices at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, for AR/VR training. The carrier will deploy a network based on commercially available equipment to support 4G and 5G utilizing cellular spectrum in both the sub-6 GHz and millimeter wave bands at Naval Base San Diego, California, for 5G smart warehousing. AT&T will provide an initially fixed, then mobile, 5G environment with high capacity and low latency to support the connectivity requirements associated with the mobile combined air operations centers at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, for distributed command and control.
In September, the DoD selected Verizon Public Sector to provide its 5G Ultra Wideband mobility service to seven Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) installations in California, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. The deployment will include C-band radios installed outdoors at each AFRC facility, bringing higher speeds, increased bandwidth and lower latency for the base personnel and the surrounding community.
In February, Federated Wireless announced that it had begun deployment of a CBRS-enabled private 5G wireless network for the DoD, along with AWS, Cisco, JMA, Vectrus, Perspecta Labs and Capstone Partners. The trial is designed to modernize the Marine Corps Logistics Command warehouse operations in Albany, GA, and to support smart warehouse use cases, including warehouse robotics, barcode scanning and holographic, AR/VR applications.
By J. Sharpe Smith Inside Towers Technology Editor
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