1. NOAA Spectrum STATUS and ISSUES Presentation to CGMS-42 WGI
NOAA Satellite and Information Service National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS)
NOAA Spectrum STATUS and ISSUES
(NOAA-WP-05)
Presentation to CGMS-42 WGI
May 2014; Guangzhou, China

2. Agenda Quick refresher
Update status of FCC auction of MHz spectrum (polar L-Band)
Update status of Lightsquared studies for sharing MHz
Spectrum issue surrounding Sentinel-1 imagery
Personnel decisions concerning NESDIS spectrum management

3. NOAA’s L-Band Environment
LightSquared leases
LightSquared wants
15 MHz Designated For Sharing
Today
POES/MetOp
MHZ
TLM HRIT
EMWIN
JPSS
LRD
(1707)
GOES-R Rebroadcast
DCPR
Radiosondes
1670
1675
1680
1685
1690
1695
1710
Post-2030
Commercial
Adjacent Bands
Radiosondes
POES & MetOp
Radiosondes

4. Auction Scenario Broadband industry prefers pairing of spectral bands
We Are Here
Polar Ops
Advanced Wireless Service -1 (already licensed)
Space-Ground Link System (SGLS) ↑
Proposed
pairing
paired channels
Likely
pairing
Advanced Wireless Service -1 (already licensed)
slated for auction
Broadcast Auxiliary Services
Broadband industry prefers pairing of spectral bands
One band for phone-to-tower (Uplink)
One band for tower-to-phone (Downlink)
Proposed paired band for MHz not yet identified
Band auctioned without paired band
Less valuable  less revenue  110% minimum threshold lowers

5. Schedule and Milestones
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Middle-Class Tax Relief Act and External Milestones
Expect broadband network use of the spectrum by 2016 ~ 2018
Bill
Signed
MHZ Identified
Transition Plan
NET Auction Start
NET Auction Winner
WRC-15
Federal
Begin vacating Federal users
Studies
NTIA planning for reallocation and reaccommodation
FCC
Network build-out requirements
Rule Making
License Applications & Auction
Private Sector
Studies
Standardization Work
Licensees Deployment
According to the Act, licensing must occur by 2/22/ Deployment may occur any time thereafter; however, as a practical matter, it may take some time for the new licensees to build their networks including deployment of user terminals equipped to utilize the new spectrum. Assuming this takes at least one year, the earliest use of the band may be observed in early On the other hand, with an expectation that the FCC will set due-diligence buildout requirements on the order of say 3-5 years, one may expect significant deployments to occur by early 2018. 5

6. Updates Since December MSR
Transition plan submitted Jan 22, 2014; approved Mar 4, 2014
Relocation costs approved; OMB reduced ops reimbursement from five years to three
Documented GOES-R pre-auction costs previously submitted
Radiosonde costs increased by $10M
Initial discussions with OSGS concerning monitoring system procurement
Handover in work – drafting
CONOPS and acquisition strategy in early stages – will engage OSPO
Departments of Interior and Defense enquired about about common procurement of monitoring systems
Continuing to monitor FCC auction preparations

7. Key Transition Plan Caveats
For NTIA
Commitment of NTIA to develop coordination portal
Engage FCC to ensure adequate enforcement mechanisms written into rules
Facilitate successful relocation of radiosondes to MHz
NOAA may come back to NTIA in future with additional critical sites
Identified high-risk and “showstopper” factors
Adequate funding and proper phasing required
Ability to validate commercial sharing methodologies
Commercial broadband industry incentivized to make this work

8. Current Costs Radiosonde relocation: $80.139M (+10M)
GOES-R pre-auction costs: $3.69 M (no change)
NTIA-hosted design portal: $6.6M (no change)
NOAA’s 1/3 cost-share only
Covers ten years of operations ( )
Monitoring system: $177M ($182M)
Design, development, implementation
OMB-directed reduction of 2 years’ operations costs ($2.5M per year)
Total relocation costs include DOI and DoD costs

9. FCC Auction Status
Draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking circulated in April 2014
Included industry comments to earlier draft and FCC adjudication
MHZ will be auctioned unpaired for uplink (phone to tower)
Neither industry or the FCC have identified a paired band
Greatly reduces auction value (Verizon called the unpaired band “useless”)
Auction divided up into “Economic Areas” – more than one company could win
Auctioned in 5-10 MHz blocks – allows us to consolidate POES and MetOp
Auction still scheduled for September 2014 and public law-mandated licensing date of February 2015

10. Lightsquared - ( MHz)
Technical analysis completed and submitted to FCC
Relocation of radiosondes to MHz is feasible
Sharing MHz band with GOES is feasible with very large exclusion zones
Next actions
Ball in FCC’s court – not obliged to do anything
Lightsquared must coordinate with other federal users in MHz before the FCC will consider any action
Any proposed FCC actions will be sent to NTIA for USG comments & clearance

11. Sentinel-1 C-Band Radar
Operates in narrow part of C-Band surrounded by commercial allocations for WiFi (think Starbucks)
World Radio Conference 2015 (WRC-15) agenda item would allocate remaining band to WiFi – shared with C-Band radars
Potential interference to satellites could result in urban areas
NOAA provided input to State Department position that testing would be required to determine likelihood of interference
EU linked agreements to share Sentinel-1 products to U.S. support

12. Personnel
Transfer of NESDIS spectrum management responsibilities to NESDIS CIO ASAP
All spectrum auction preparations
Routine filings and support to programs
Management of support contractors
Operational spectrum management (launch notifications, UAS flights, interference
CIO to recruit and hire spectrum manager to perform liaison function with NESDIS spectrum users

13. Questions?

14. Back-up

15. NOAA S-Band (2200-2290 MHz) Primary use New neighbors Results
DMSP commanding and mission data
GOES-N & GOES-R commanding
New neighbors
Navy UAV and NASA aircraft test flights
DishNet deployment of MHz nationwide broadband
Increased number of Wallops space launches
ISS COTS missions – orbital and reentry/recovery ops
Results
Disruptions to Wallops ops during UAV missions
Increased number of time-critical analysis tasks
ISS COTS missions bring other NOAA sites into play

16. NOAA X-Band (7000–8000 MHz) Primary NOAA use New neighbors – us!
Downlink for SNPP and JPSS mission data
GOES-N and GOES-R uplink and downlink
New neighbors – us!
Different rules for polar downlinks
X-Band High-Rate Data (HRD)
Continuous direct broadcast not permitted
Requirement to shut off when not in field of view of ground station
L-Band POES/MetOp HRPT – continuous direct broadcast allowed
Competition with numerous other X-band spacecraft
Results
Resolved SNPP HRD downlink issue right before launch
Analyzed and resolved potential interference issues at Fairbanks and Svalbard between Landsat-8 and SNPP

17. NOAA C-Band (~5300 MHz) Jason 2 & 3 Poseiden-3 altimeter transmit band
New neighbors
Interference potential with FAA ground control radar
In-band interference potential with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) spacecraft (RISAT and RADARSAT)
Results
FAA issue resolved via live testing at NASA Glenn
Analysis performed to resolve SAR issues – for now

18. Transition Plan Elements
Key Features
Public document prepared before the auction
Approved by technical panel: NTIA, FCC, and OMB
Prerequisite for reimbursement from Spectrum Relocation Fund
System goes “ live” three years after receipt of funds
NOAA must-have’s:
Continuity of POES and MetOp TT&C operations
Continuity of radiosonde operations
Protection of all identified critical sites
GOES-N and GOES-R adjacent band protection
Option for JPSS LRD and PFF operations in MHz band
Implementation & operations (Funding + three years):
Coordination Portal website to facilitate continuing need to address site specific requests
Spectrum Monitoring capability to provide data to enhance sharing and enforce protection