DOD details four 5G testbeds
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The Army has released some details about the wireless 5G testbeds it plans to run at military bases.
The Army has released details about the wireless 5G testbeds it plans to run at Hill Air Force Base in Utah and the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Ga.
In late October, the Defense Department announced four bases where it would test emerging 5G technologies. In a Dec. 2 request for industry input, the Army described the first two projects:
The smart warehouse and asset management testbed is designed to develop and demonstrate prototypes that use 5G-enabled technologies to improve operations for the Marines at the logistics base in Georgia. It aims to boost "the efficiency, accuracy, security, and safety of materiel and supply handling, management, storage, and distribution," the announcement said. The smart warehouse would also be a proving ground for testing emerging 5G-enabled technologies for large-scale operations.
With the 5G dynamic spectrum sharing testbed at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, DOD will work to develop hardware, software and systems that enable operation of both airborne radar systems and 5G cellular systems in shared spectral bands. The plan is to build a local, full-scale 5G mobile cellular network, so researchers can evaluate the impact the 5G network and the airborne radar systems have on each other when sharing spectrum. The goal is to develop equipment, control systems and processes that will allow radar spectrum sharing or coexistence with cooperating and non-cooperating 5G networks.
The document said draft requests for additional prototypes for 5G projects at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Naval Base San Diego will come "in the near future." One of those projects will be a testbed for integrating augmented/virtual reality into mission planning and training.
On Dec. 9, DOD issued the two additional solicitations for a 5G augmented/virtual reality network at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state and for a 5G smart warehouse network at Naval Supply Systems Command's (NAVSUP) Fleet Logistics Center San Diego.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord plans to use virtual and augmented reality technologies to allow for fieldable, combat-like training in 5G-enhanced locations. The testbed will demonstrate distributed training, which includes information transmitted to the trainee via AR/VR protocols, distributed simulation computing environments, and command and control replicated data, as well as information transmitted from the trainee into the shared simulation environment.
Like the Marine Corp smart warehouse testbed, the NAVSUP asset management project in San Diego aims to improve processes and automation for warehouse operations that support logistics operations ensuring warfighter readiness. Warehouse management systems capable of interfacing with the Navy's existing systems will "optimize warehouse operation for receipt, putaway, replenishment, pick, pack and ship operations," the solicitation said.
The bases were selected for the testbeds because they are able to provide "streamlined access to site spectrum bands, mature fiber and wireless infrastructure, access to key facilities, support for new or improved infrastructure requirements, and the ability to conduct controlled experimentation with dynamic spectrum sharing," DOD said in an October release.
The 5G plans, announced by DOD CIO Dana Deasy in June, will not only guide the agency in how to apply 5G in its facilities in the future, but also leave useable 5G infrastructure in place at the chosen sites.
This article was first posted to FCW, a sibling site to GCN. It was updated Dec. 10 with information about the second two testbeds.