RTX’s BBN Technologies has been selected to lead the Advanced Spectrum Coexistence Demonstration program, an initiative sponsored by the US Department of Defense and the National Spectrum Consortium. The program seeks to enable 5G commercial networks and military radar systems to operate simultaneously within shared frequency bands without interference. Traditional spectrum reallocation processes are slow and often manual, sometimes requiring tens of minutes to resolve conflicts. The new initiative aims to replace those processes with automated, intelligent systems capable of detecting radar activity and dynamically rerouting 5G traffic within seconds. During its initial phase, the BBN-led team will develop a “smart spectrum manager” that predicts radar transmissions and proactively adjusts network operations. Future phases envision a fully autonomous system governed by predefined policies to optimize spectrum allocation with minimal human oversight. Performance objectives include increasing usable 5G capacity by 50 percent, reducing radar interference by 20 decibels, and significantly enhancing 5G link reliability during concurrent operations. Testing will occur in Massachusetts, Texas, Virginia, and Indiana, with contributions from Raytheon Advanced Technology, Ericsson Federal Technologies Group, Federated Wireless, Signal Processing Technologies, Novowi, and Purdue University.
