DISA seeks updated spectrum management tool

WHAT: The Defense Information Systems Agency is looking for a new way to manage its spectrum.

WHY: The Defense Department holds vast amounts of spectrum, from the lower VHF bands up into the super-high frequency bands, for radar, aircraft and weapons telemetry, tactical communications, air-traffic control, satellites and sundry other uses. Increasingly, the military is being asked to share spectrum holdings with commercial users, most recently in the case of the AWS-3 auction, which generated about $45 billion for the federal government via the sale of licenses to use 65 MHz of prime, "beachfront" spectrum. A planned expansion of unlicensed commercial spectrum use in the 3.5 GHz band could require sharing between, say, mobile Wi-Fi users and military radar. Spectrum management is a critical function, especially when there is sharing involved. So plans by the Joint Spectrum Center to modernize the Global Electromagnetic Spectrum Information System are worth watching.

In a sources sought notice posted on FedBizOpps.gov, DISA announced it was contemplating a new contract to support software that can dynamically issue frequencies in a spectrum-sharing environment. A new automated spectrum management tool would have to support 200,000 Defense Department frequency records and 500,000 civilian federal frequency records, and support 1,000 total users, at a peak of 500 simultaneous logons. A new contractor would also have to support the current legacy system until it is phased out. Exelis currently holds the DISA spectrum management contract. Responses to DISA's notice are due April 10.