Coexistence of LTE & Radars

In the US, cellular networks, radar and other wireless systems are designed to obey a fixed spectrum assignment regulated by the FCC. These assignments are now being challenged, in that some bands are under-utilized, while others are highly over-utilized. This ineffectiveness in spectrum allocation is exacerbated by the dramatically increasing need for bandwidth in our RF infrastructure. In addition, state-of-the-art mobile radio standards claim more and more bandwidth. For example, the worldwide allocation of LTE bands increased from 11 to 48 bands since 2011. Issues like these have supported the evolution of intelligent systems such as cognitive radio.

This presentation will discuss the coexistence between S-Band radars and the commercial LTE mobiles operating in E-UTRA Band 7 from where considerations to the future LTE technology by the DoD in close proximity to radars can be drawn. Coexistence issues examined by looking at measurement data gathered at a major international airport will be presented. Key performance indicators such as data throughput or Block Error Rate of the mobile LTE device and the probability of detection of security relevant radars have been measured and evaluated with the goal how to recognize and address the problems they cause.