Building of automated tools for management and use of the electromagnetic spectrum

The United States Navy with densely populated communications electronic equipment on board ships and at shore facilities, has confronted significant and unique electromagnetic interference problems. Two primary factors contributing these problems are available physical space and available electromagnetic spectrum. Due to the close proximity of platforms and equipment, close coordination is necessary for the effective and efficient utilization of the electromagnetic spectrum. While the US Navy was forced by necessity to deal with global spectrum management considerations, national and international implications of spectrum usage are becoming more prevalent in other governments around the world. As international travel and trade have grown and flourished, certain conventions or conferences evolved to cooperation for the mutual of all parties concerned. Cooperative use of the electromagnetic spectrum via the International telecommunications Union (ITU) is an example. The demands on spectrum usage are going to be much more dynamic, and require the participation and cooperation of all nations and all entities, departments, and agencies within these particular nations. Automated spectrum management systems will be required to handle the tasks of frequency allocation, frequency assignment, frequency allotment, etc., in a dynamic fashion to control and reduce electromagnetic interference. This paper presents the design considerations associated with one such system, the US Navy´s Automated Spectrum Planning, Engineering Coordination and Tracking System (ASPECTS)