Digital Global Systems (DGS) is ready to bring a dynamic jolt to the staid private network market with new technology that's designed to allow more precise spectrum management and better support for enterprises as they work to digitize their networking infrastructure.

The Virginia-based company recently emerged from stealth mode after nine years, bringing to bear a wealth of patented software technology that can support the dynamic management of shared licensed-spectrum assets.

CEO Fernando Murias told SDxCentral  that the company’s “secret sauce” is its software, algorithms and learning engines that support sensing technology that can monitor the performance and usage of shared licensed spectrum out to the edge. This technology can be embedded in network equipment to provide vendors, operators, hyperscalers and system integrators (SIs) with insight into the spectrum performance and requirements of private 5G networks.

“Our focus is on capturing and processing signals autonomously at the edge to provide real-time actionable data against defined customer goals,” Murias said. “Nobody's really doing that effectively in the market right now from our perspective and so we feel like we're fairly unique and hence the patent portfolio to prove it.”

That patent portfolio includes 138 “issued patents, with some coverage internationally.”

"DGS’s dynamic spectrum sharing capabilities are a valuable and credible approach to understanding the RF channel and making sure that interference and channel impairments can be addressed in near real-time,” ABI Research Principal Analyst Leo Gergs wrote in a Digital Global Systems white paper. “This opens valuable communications opportunities to improve private and licensed wireless network performance and enhance next-gen [radio access networks].”

Murias has raised $60 million in equity and $30 million in debt “through my personal network. There’s no VCs. There’s no private equity involved.”

“That’s a pretty big friends-and-family round,” Murias added.

The company’s model is focused on tapping into its patent portfolio to license its technology to help radio access network (RAN) manufacturers in the private network space “differentiate their brands,” with Murias adding that the private network space is “a target market for us.”

“From a 5G and RAN differentiation and private wireless standpoint, the private wireless sector currently uses a static propagation model to assign spectrum,” Murias said. “This is going to prevent that industry from really scaling as we anticipate significant interference in congested environments, as more users come onto the system. That's an early entry focus of ours, and we're working with companies like Celona to help demonstrate the capability at work of our technology.”

Digital Global Systems at the recent MWC Las Vegas event also demonstrated its technology with equipment partners Airspan, Deepwave Digital and Dell. This included a neutral host proof of concept (PoC) with the City of Las Vegas.

Murias added that Digital Global Systems' technology should appeal to hyperscalers and other entities that want to provide a spectrum component to their private network offerings outside of traditional telecom operators. This has been an area that hyperscalers have so far looked top partner with operators on instead of delving into the next level of management required to handle spectrum issues on their own.

“We have a very big value proposition for the hyperscalers and the chipset companies because of what our focus is around our patents,” Murias said. “It'll be able to pull key data and pull it outside of the physical layer so that you become less reliant on the telcos as a pipe. This is something that I think is very attractive to hyperscalers.”

This opportunity will be dependent on how the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moves toward greater use of dynamic spectrum sharing as opposed to the current model. Those current efforts are built on the quasi-licensed Consumer Broadband Radio Services (CBRS) spectrum band that is used in the United States.

CBRS spectrum is a swath of around 150 megahertz in the 3.5 GHz band that the federal government has set aside for licensed use. Access to that spectrum is through a multi-tiered access program that includes tier-one incumbents with “protected status,” including the Department of Defense for use by Navy ship radars and registered fixed satellite receiving stations; a tier two for “priority access licenses” (PAL); and tier three for “general authorized” (GAA) channels.

Shared access to that spectrum is through a group of Spectrum Access System (SAS) administrators comprised of CommScope, Federated Wireless, Google, and Sony.

The FCC began working on this specific shared model a decade ago and adopted the current rules in 2015. Actual usage of the spectrum did not begin until just a few years ago, but it has since become central to many private 5G business plans.

This form of spectrum sharing is available around the world.

SNS Telecom & IT recently released a report that highlighted similar programs in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Bahrain, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada and Brazil. Those efforts are expected to account for $1.4 billion in spending on 4G LTE and 5G-based radio access network (RAN) equipment this year, and $3 billion by 2026.

Depending on who you ask, this process has either been wildly successful or a complete bust. (There is no other option, so don’t ask.)

The FCC is currently working through ground rules for the ability to adapt spectrum in the 3.1-3.45 GHz band that is currently used by the Department of Defense (DoD) for shared access by commercial entities. Those options could follow the current CBRS model or require a more dynamic model.

“We're expecting some interesting, formalized news around dynamic spectrum sharing with the auction that's coming up here in Q1 of next year, where we believe the government is going to mandate the use of dynamic spectrum sharing for that auction,” Murias said.

That more dynamic model, as offered up by DGS, would allow for a more precise geographic monitoring of spectrum use and licensing as opposed to the broader physical footprint used by the CBRS model. This would allow enterprises to have access to and pay for only the spectrum resources they need at a particular location.

"We've talked to a number of SAS providers and they understand and agree with what we're saying and understand that a real-time sensing environment of the spectrum could provide a much more efficient allocation of spectrum," Murias said. "We're delicately working through how best to embed that into the existing private wireless process."