Raytheon to enhance 5G and airborne radar coexistence

Air March 16, 2021

Raytheon Intelligence & Space has been awarded an $8 million contract under the National Spectrum Consortium’s Dynamic Spectrum Sharing program, which is part of the US Department of Defense 5G to NextG initiative.

The NSC wants to understand how the 5G network will impact airborne radar systems and how the radars might impact the 5G network.

Scientists at Raytheon BBN Technologies, with teammates from Novowi LLC and Purdue University, will develop techniques that minimise interference between the 5G network and airborne radar systems on the network testbed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The spectrum-sharing solution will incorporate advanced technologies including:

Machine learning optimised through the use of large training data sets for real-time interference mapping and prediction to minimise interference;
Distributed spectrum optimisation to enhance interference mapping;
Overlay routing to combat the impact of interference and improve resilience; and
Dynamic virtual slicing, which slices the network logically into multiple virtual networks so each slice can be optimised to meet the diverse needs of different applications while avoiding interference.

Brad Tousley, President at Raytheon BBN Technologies, said: “5G will play a major role in our economy, our military, and our national security.

“This testing and experimentation will help us identify ways to use this new technology safely and securely in both the private sector and defence domain.”