• Together with partners Jabil and Airspan, this grant will build spectrum sensing into production-ready Open RAN radios to improve efficiency, security and performance in 5G and beyond.

Arlington, Virginia – DeepSig, a pioneer in AI-native wireless communications, announces that it has received a grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Public Wireless Innovation Fund. This award builds DeepSig’s industry-leading AI-powered spectrum sensing solution, OmniSIG®, into production-ready Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) Radio Units (O-RUs) that incorporate open interfaces to build sensing native RAN.

Building AI-powered spectrum sensing into O-RUs eliminates the need for costly independent sensing networks. This approach offers unparalleled efficiency, cost reduction and enhanced network security. It also leverages open interfaces within ORAN to make the network and RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) fully spectrum-aware in an open and interoperable way.

“DeepSig is honored to receive this grant from NTIA, supporting our efforts to shape the future of open and interoperable next-generation RAN sensing,” said DeepSig CEO Jim Shea. “Spectrum awareness and optimization are essential for advancing U.S. telecommunications competitiveness, performance and security.”

Enabling Pervasive Spectrum Sensing in RAN Infrastructure

• Dynamic Spectrum Sharing: The Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) demonstrated that 4G and 5G can share spectrum with naval radars. New bands that share spectrum with aircraft and land vehicles demand real-time sensing.
• Interference Detection and Mitigation: Identify and resolve interference, jamming or equipment failures to minimize costly downtime.
• Wireless Security and Resilience: Continuous spectrum monitoring can rapidly identify jamming, wireless attacks, unauthorized access or abnormal behavior.
• Automated Network Deployment, Operations and Maintenance: Optimized band allocation and automated tuning make better use of the current spectrum.
• Wireless Pattern of Life and Digital Twin: Understanding wireless activity can accelerate Smart City initiatives, aid disaster recovery and improve public safety.

“Our goal is to push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI in wireless communication,” adds Shea. “This technology has the power to modernize network performance and security across diverse sectors, from industrial operations to public safety.”

Edge-Embedded Sensing in the RAN: A Game-Changing Approach

Spectrum sensing has previously been impractical due to costs, older approaches, and logistical challenges in scaled deployment. By embedding efficient state-of-the-art AI-driven sensing techniques at the edge within competitive high-volume O-RU devices and open interfaces, this effort will change the art of the possible by combining DeepSig’s OmniSIG AI-driven sensing into mature O-RU solutions. These solutions will enable real-time, cost-efficient and scalable solutions that provide broad spectrum visibility and allow open interfaces to a wide range of sensing-driven vertical applications and features within the RAN and the RIC.

Already trusted widely in defense and cybersecurity applications, OmniSIG’s capabilities will be leveraged for broad commercial use within volume-friendly hardware platforms, demonstrating its transformative potential in sensing aware Open 5G and 6G networks and new bands.

Read NTIA’s announcement here and learn more about the future of AI-driven spectrum sensing by reading our latest blog here.