DOD unwraps 7 more 5G testing sites
The Defense Department has named seven new 5G test sites that will explore augmented reality, wireless connectivity and spectrum sharing, officials announced June 3.
This second tranche of test sites includes Naval Station Norfolk, Va., focusing on shipwide and pier-side connectivity; Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, testing aircraft mission readiness; and Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, probing augmented reality and training. The National Training Center at Fort Irwin and Camp Pendleton in California and Fort Hood in Texas, will test wireless connectivity, while Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma will focus on bi-directional spectrum sharing between DOD communications systems and commercial 5G systems.
“The bases were selected for their ability to serve as at-scale, as large-scale test facilities to enable rapid experimentation as well as dual-use application prototyping,” Joseph Evans, DOD's technical director for 5G, said in the announcement’s briefing. “Selection criteria included factors such as mature fiber and wireless infrastructure, streamlined access to spectrum bands and prototyping, test area and training range access.”
Requests for proposals are expected this summer with plans to stand up the new test sites this fall, Evans said.
The first five testbeds are experimenting with smart warehouse and asset management in support of logistics, dynamic spectrum sharing and the use of use virtual and augmented reality technologies for fieldable, combat-like training in 5G-enhanced locations.
The experiments, now spanning 12 sites, are on a three- to four-year timeline, but capabilities that could theoretically be handed off could emerge around the two-year mark, Evans said during an AFCEA DC event on 5G earlier on June 3.
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