Citizens Band Radio Services (CBRS) is a band of radio-frequency spectrum from 3.5GHz to 3.7GHz that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has designated for sharing among three tiers of users.
The purpose of it is to enable enterprises to build their own private 4G/5G networks in hopes of improving 4G/5G offerings from service providers.
The three tiers of users involved in CBRS are:
- Incumbent users – Those who have historically held exclusive rights to this spectrum band: satellite ground stations and the Navy.
- Priority licenses – These will be auctioned off June 25 and will allow licensees to use the band in specific U.S. counties so long as they don’t interfere with the incumbents and tolerate interference from the incumbents.
- Generally authorized – This tier of access gives users the right to use the band as long as they don’t interfere with the other two categories of users.
The FCC has dubbed the 3.5 GHz band the “innovation band” in rules issued in April 2015. It stems from the 2010 National Broadband Plan issued by the FCC, which set out to make 500 MHz of additional spectrum available for new mobile uses.
Major telecom carriers will likely use the CBRS band to extend coverage and capacity of their 4G LTE and 5G networks. But the band will also behoove cable operators looking to get into wireless, as well as assorted managed service providers, which could include building management companies.
CBRS is a godsend for enterprises also who could use the spectrum to set up their own 4G and 5G networks with which they could connect their IoT devices (services work both indoors and outdoors).
Additionally, this new spectrum band is expected to benefit service providers who will likely use CBRS to replace last-mile fiber access, deliver fixed wireless services and even point-to-multipoint offerings.
It’s also feasible that enterprises and managed service providers could exploit it for IoT connectivity and even for Wi-Fi replacement or supplementary services. LTE services could hit 1Gbps indoors and maybe five or 10 times that for outdoor uses with line-of-sight access.
Want to learn more? Tonex offers 5G Citizens Band Radio Services (CBRS) Training, a 2-day course that provides an end-to-end overview of 5G CBRS network architecture, protocols, implementation and security. It is targeted for a broad technical and non-technical audience including engineers, technicians, sales and marketing, operations and support.
Additionally, Tonex offers a large selection of other cutting edge 5G Training courses, such as:
5G NR Training, 5G New Radio (NR) Training(2 days)
5G Training | 5G System Survey Training (2 days)
5G Security Training | 5G Wireless Security Training(4 days)
5G Crash Course (4 days)
Next Generation Networks Crash Course(4 days)
For more information, questions, comments, contact us.