Hill Air Force Base Picks Nokia O-RAN for 5G Testbed

Nokia has extended its partnership with Hill Air Force Base and the National Spectrum Consortium to ensure that incumbent radar and 5G networks operating can co-exist seamlessly in shared spectrum by controlling the behavior in real time of the 5G system when the incumbent radar is present.

Hill Air Force Base is using Nokia’s O-RAN solutions for the testbed and Phase 1 of the project has been successfully completed. The project is part of a wider initiative by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) to create its first tranche of 5G wireless testbeds.

Nokia is a leader in Open RAN innovation and its Service Enablement Platform combines RIC and Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) capabilities to deliver radio network programmability and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning across the Open RAN ecosystem. For Hill Air Force Base, Nokia’s Service Enablement Platform exposes radar interference detection and mitigation capabilities via an O-RAN interface developed by the O-RAN Alliance.

Deb Stanislawski, Director Prototyping and Experimentation, OUSD(R&E) 5G, stated: “We appreciate the dedication of our industry partners working with us to deliver on the potential of these cutting-edge 5G networking solutions and 5G enabled applications. Nokia developed the 5G Testbed solution at Hill AFB to help ensure DoD radar detection can co-exist with commercial 5G networks operating in the same shared spectrum. We look forward to continuing our work together to help move beyond the state-of-the-art in 5G commercial architectures to ensure we address key Warfighting needs and expand U.S.-based capabilities critical to 5G adoption."

Michael Loomis, General Manager at Nokia Federal Solutions, said: “We initially partnered with Hill Air Force Base on a testbed for dynamic spectrum sharing, and this extension of our agreement with Hill Air Force Base is a testament to our ability to deliver standards-based solutions that meet the DoD’s requirements. For this next phase, we leveraged our O-RAN platform with RIC capabilities for the testbed. Nokia was the first major vendor to join the O-RAN Alliance, and we continue to chair workgroups defining the Fronthaul interface and the RIC. We continue to deliver innovation with security and openness built-in.”