Impact of Modeling Parameters on Precision of Aggregate Interference Estimates in the CBRS Band

The Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) is a multi-tiered access and authorization framework that accommodates shared federal and non-federal use of the 3.5 GHz frequency band. CBRS is governed by Federal Communications Commission rules. An essential mechanism that protects which incumbent government users from CBRS interference is understanding aggregate emission levels at locations where incumbents operate, known as “protection points.” Because of proprietary concerns, CBRS cannot share data on actual deployment, so the data must be approximated. This paper describes a modeling effort to assess the precision of aggregate interference estimates that use approximated data on deployment of CBRS devices. The work examined the extent to which individual modeling parameters affect the variance of aggregate interference estimates at protection points, and how these results may affect confidence in using modeling to assess the risk of harmful interference.