Electromagnetic Spectrum and Bandwidth

DARPA today announced the newest of its Grand Challenges, one designed to ensure that the exponentially growing number of military and civilian wireless devices will have full access to the increasingly crowded electromagnetic spectrum. The agency’s Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2) will reward teams for developing smart systems that collaboratively, rather than competitively, adapt in real time to today’s fast-changing, congested spectrum environment—redefining the conventional spectrum management roles of humans and machines in order to maximize the flow of radio frequency (RF) signals.

In March, DARPA officials first publicly floated plans for the Spectrum Collaboration Challenge, an initiative designed to ensure that the exponentially growing number of military and civilian wireless devices will have full access to the increasingly crowded electromagnetic spectrum. Today, with the Agency release of detailed postings about the competition’s architecture, rules, and two participation options for seeking one of the up to 30 available slots, SC2 is officially on.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) is sponsoring an Information Day on August 10, 2016, to provide information to potential competitors in the Spectrum Collaboration Challenge as described in DARPA-BAA-16-47 and posted on fbo.gov. On the following day, August 11, the Agency’s SC2 team will hold a Proposers Day for those potentially interested in fulfilling the Challenge’s architectural needs, including the scoring methodology, scenario development for testing competitors’ collaborative strategies and tactics, and means for assuring the integrity of the competition and keeping it free from tampering or other kinds of malfeasance. These aspects of SC2 are fully described in DARPA-BAA-16-48, also posted on fbo.gov. Those interested in both angles of SC2 are welcome to attend both the Information and Proposers Days, which will be held at DARPA, 675 North Randolph Street, Arlington, VA, 22203. Advance registration is required. For more information and to register, visit the SC2 website, https://spectrumcollaborationchallenge.com/. Additional information about both the Information and Proposers Days also is available in a Special Notice posted on fbo.gov.

Over the next three years, DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office will hold a series of competitive events as the Agency’s next grand challenge—the Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2)—unfolds. SC2 is the first-of-its-kind collaborative machine-learning competition to overcome scarcity in the radio frequency spectrum. Today, access to the spectrum is managed by dividing it into rigid, exclusively licensed bands.

Across the nation and around the world, the wireless revolution is fueling a voracious demand for access to the radio frequency (RF) spectrum. In the civilian sector, consumer devices from smartphones to wearable fitness recorders to smart kitchen appliances are competing for bandwidth. Managing this increasing demand, while combating what appears to be a looming scarcity of RF spectrum is a serious problem for our nation, militarily, socially, and economically.