Last December, Wall Street Journal columnist Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., published a column entitled, “Is Airwave Nimbyism Holding Back 5G?” where he suggested that some stakeholders have been keeping Ligado’s spectrum “hostage for a decade.”

Today I want to focus on the cognitive engine that is the foundation of the CBRS shared spectrum architecture: the spectrum controller.  Many of you are familiar with the management function of a controller in a network… The spectrum controller plays a similar role in the CBRS network architecture, with the addition of some unique features.  The spectrum controller acts as the Spectrum Access System (SAS) to enforce the three-tier spectrum sharing framework adopted by the FCC for CBRS. The novel three-tier sharing framework coordinates spectrum access among the incumbent military radars, satellite earth stations, and new commercial users. The three tiers of use are Incumbent, Priority Access License (PAL), and General Authorized Access (GAA).

By Mark Rockwell Four agencies are banking on industry coming up with an innovative way to free up spectrum by combining surveillance, air safety...