Spectrum of Transformation
NEW DISA TEAM SAFEGUARDS THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM AS THE
FOUNDATION OF EXTENDING NET-CENTRIC CAPABILITIES TO THE EDGE.
Inside and outside the Department of Defense, there is increasing familiarity with the concept of net-centric operations. This is as fundamental a transformation for the military as it has been for the commercial world. Extending these key net-centric services and capabilities to the end user—to the edge of the networ—is absolutely critical to the warfighter. And these services are all predicated on one critical element, which is intangible and often fragile: radiofrequency spectrum.
Communications, weapon systems, logistics, radar, sensors, navigation, geolocation and numerous other systems and capabilities are dependent on spectrum access. Warfighters on the move will depend on dynamic, smart and ad hoc connections to the Global Information Grid (GIG), using electromagnetic spectrum resources. The bottom line is that electromagnetic spectrum is the foundation for the wireless GIG and is essential to enabling enterprise services to the edge, a key strategy of DISA and for DoD at large.
A bold new team within DISA, called the Defense Spectrum Organization (DSO), has been stood up to safeguard that foundation.
Wireless technology, mobility and netcentric operations give us a military advantage over our adversaries. This is literally a life-and-death matter, not only for our men and women in uniform but also for all of us whom they protect. Spectrum is not only a force enabler, but also a force multiplier. Without adequate spectrum access around the world, U.S. and coalition forces cannot operate effectively and maintain needed superiority.
We are all familiar with issues of interference and their potential effects on the commercial bottom line. But consider what can—and does—happen in the streets and alleys of Baghdad or Kabul. A recent article in this magazine quoted a Marine lieutenant colonel who served in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. He related that the terrorists commonly used handheld radio devices to set off IEDs. In response, coalition military forces learned to jam those frequencies, but with unintended side effects: The jamming often disrupted coalition tactical communications within the very same convoys they were trying to protect. We do not want our folks in harm’s way to have to make a decision between disabling IED devices and being able to communicate.
It is imperative that the department get ahead of the curve on spectrum management and supportability. It is just unacceptable to look out on the technological changes taking place in the world today and continue to do things the way we have always done them.
CENTER OF EXCELLENCE
Too often, DoD has been perceived as slow to catch on to the importance of evolving spectrum management techniques and philosophies. That perception is now changing, because the creation of DSO signaled DoD’s serious intent to be a national, global and proactive leader in spectrum policy, use and transformation. DSO was formed by combining the Joint Spectrum Center and the former Defense Spectrum Office, under DISA. This merger created a “one-stop shop” and center of excellence for spectrum support to the military departments, Joint Staff, combatant commands and Office of the Secretary of Defense. This organization is achieving new levels of synergy and integration, not only within the spectrum community, but also across the science and technology, acquisition and operations communities.
A key element of our support is to incorporate advances in wireless technologies into revised policies, architectures and improved processes and tools that will be leveraged throughout the department. Our goal is to do more, quantitatively and qualitatively, within the finite spectrum available. This principle can be captured in the term “spectrum productivity,” a concept that captures both efficiency and effectiveness. The bottom line for DoD is to harness its spectrum inputs and deliver greater operational outputs in terms of enhanced capability and lower costs.
The new DSO has its work cut out for it. We are currently on one end of the spectrum (no pun intended), with stovepiped, fairly static, and man-in-the-loop processes and systems. However, we are moving toward a much more distributed, dynamic and cognitive environment, which allows us to do more with less spectrum.
Our best ally in this effort is wireless technology itself. Newer transmission, receiver and antenna technologies are enabling quantum leaps in efficiency and more robust sharing capabilities. DSO is spotlighting these technologies while they are still over the horizon, so that the department can incorporate them into future military communications, sensing and weapons systems.
Meanwhile, DSO’s mission also involves ensuring that the military has the proper spectrum management tools and resources to provide optimal operational support for the warfighter, now and into the future. This includes proactively monitoring and shaping policy, the regulatory framework, and spectrum management techniques and concepts, and doing it on a global basis.
The operational, technological and policy environments we operate in are not static, but are evolving rapidly. The netcentric battlefield will be highly mobile, dynamic and densely populated with spectrum- dependent systems. Networks will be established on an ad-hoc basis and will have to self-organize for rapid assimilation of mobile units. Assured access to spectrum will be critical, and we envision intelligent terminals and handheld devices will be empowered to search for, and employ, spectrum wherever they can find it.
DSO GOALS
Our goals are focused on enabling the warfighter and DoD spectrum transformation— enhancing, simplifying, standardizing and globalizing our spectrum processes and capabilities. Our organization is focused on:
• Providing direct support to the warfighter through training, deployed interference resolution teams, database and analysis support, recommended tactics, techniques and procedures, enhanced automated tools, and a 24x7 operations support cell supporting C-IED mitigation efforts.
• Supporting the acquisition and operations communities to ensure that as we develop, acquire and field spectrumdependent systems, those systems will operate as intended in the electromagnetic environment.
• Ensuring a comprehensive and integrated DoD spectrum strategy and implementation plan.
• Establishing a common framework and roadmap via the Defense Spectrum Management Architecture (DSMA) to guide our efforts around process, people, tools and programs.
• Developing joint net-centric and dynamic spectrum management planning, assessment and operations tools.
• Providing proactive and integrated advocacy for DoD requirements in the national and international regulatory arenas.
• Ensuring a robust spectrum technology program to proactively shape future policy, enhance regulatory flexibility and improve spectrum utilization while improving operational capabilities for the warfighter.
• Making it second nature within the department to factor spectrum issues into our everyday thinking, planning, development, acquisition and operational activities.
TOOLS, POLICIES AND TECHNOLOGIES
There are many initiatives being actively pursued and supported by DSO, and throughout the department, that move us closer to achieving these goals. Examples come from three different, yet interrelated, fronts: tools, policy approaches and technologies.
The tools include the Global Electromagnetic Spectrum Information System (GEMSIS), which will be a vital tool to assist the warfighter in maximizing access to the electromagnetic spectrum to conduct net-centric operations. GEMSIS is a joint program that will result in an integrated set of capabilities to assess spectrum supportability through modeling and simulation, and support mission requirements by transforming spectrum operations from a preplanned and static frequency assignment system into a responsive and agile capability to plan, request, assign, allocate and de-conflict the electromagnetic spectrum.
Another key tool is DSMA, which is the department’s enterprise architecture to describe our transformation for spectrum management. It is our blueprint and roadmap that will support requirements definition, guide acquisition decisions, and enable successful planning and operations.
Tools are wonderful things, but absent new, proactive policy and planning, their use will be limited. Spectrum management needs to be an integral part of the DoD acquisition process and battlespace resource management. The legacy, stovepiped radio system design process and static spectrum management approach will no longer fully optimize spectrum resources. We need an updated strategic approach to maximize spectrum use in all dimensions, including frequency, space, time, power and signal structure.
This will require a paradigm shift. We are working on this through the development of the DoD Electromagnetic Spectrum Management Strategic Plan, which responds to several mandates, including from the Presidential Spectrum Initiative, the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review and Congress, which included in the FY 2004 defense authorization bill a direction to submit to Congress, in even budget years, a strategic plan “for the management of the electromagnetic spectrum to ensure the accessibility and efficient use of that spectrum.”
The third example is around technology, which is a key enabler of spectrum transformation. DoD wants to leverage the tremendous advances being provided by commercial and government wireless technology developments, but we need to do it smartly. We need to ensure that we do not suffer degradation of operational capability by adopting or fielding technologies without ensuring that they will not cause unintended electromagnetic effects. As an example, a current area of concern is the potential that WiMAX, which DoD would like to fully leverage, may degrade military capabilities in certain frequency bands.
Much promise lies in the development of dynamic spectrum access and emerging technologies such as software-defined radio and cognitive radio. Newer technologies will drive and support spectrum management tools and processes that enable increased sharing and reuse. Our intent is to not only leverage more dynamic, agile and cognitive spectrum technologies, but to also identify areas of concern so that we can work collaboratively with industry to proactively mitigate potential degradation to critical military operations.
INDUSTRY HELP
We cannot do this alone. A key element of defense spectrum transformation is government and industry collaboration, and we need to increase our cooperative efforts between the department, other federal agencies and industry. We all ultimately have the same spectrum challenges and goals. The key is working together to maximize spectrum access for all, while balancing competing interests that are all essential to our nation. These include economic growth and prosperity, as well as national and homeland security.
Specifically, we need to:
• Collectively ensure that as DoD develops and acquires new spectrum-dependent systems, we do our due diligence (analysis, testing and coordination) to ensure that systems will operate as intended in their electromagnetic environment.
• Develop technology partnerships to help us better leverage commercial technologies— in some cases with modifications and improvements—while protecting existing DoD operations.
• Leverage industry’s technology innovation and work together on emerging technologies and techniques to improve spectrum efficiency, agility, sharing and management.
• Partner closely with the other federal agencies, as well as industry, to ensure that our regulatory framework, both nationally and internationally, is flexible enough to accommodate and promote emerging technologies that will be key to our future success.
As a result of many efforts over the past year, an organization is taking shape with the depth and breadth of expertise to support DoD’s transformation agenda in the area of spectrum engineering and management. DSO is driven by the realization that, as intangible and fragile a resource as spectrum is, it is no more intangible than the ideals and values we seek to protect, and only slightly less fragile than the lives of the Americans who volunteer to go out there and protect them. ♦
