Q&A: Paige Atkins
Written by Harrison Donnelly
Developing Innovative Solutions to Ensure Global Access
Paige Atkins
Director
Defense Spectrum Organization
Atkins is responsible for comprehensive and integrated spectrum plans and long-term strategies to transform the department’s legacy spectrum management processes and capabilities to future net-centric operations. She supports the secretary of defense on national and international spectrum issues, spectrum coordination, and in the pursuit of emerging spectrum efficient technologies. She is responsible for providing direct support to the assistant secretary of defense for networks and information integration (ASD (NII)/Department of Defense CIO, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, combatant commanders, and DoD components.
Her professional career began in 1984 as a test engineer at Gould, supporting multiple passive towed-array sonar programs. In October 1988, she joined government service as an electronics engineer at the Electromagnetic Compatibility Analysis Center, later known as the Joint Spectrum Center (JSC). She became chief, Aerospace Systems Division in 1991, leading diverse electromagnetic compatibility and spectrum management efforts, to include managing all of the JSC’s space-related activities.
In 1997, Atkins joined Scitor, leading a team that provided information assurance, command and control, satellite communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and spectrum management expertise to the Air Force, DISA and the Army. In April 2000, she was selected by the Defense Science Board Task Force to provide subject matter expertise on DoD frequency spectrum issues.
In 2000, Atkins joined Cisco Systems as a customer advocate and strategic adviser to DISA. She led a team of customer liaisons across Cisco’s most strategic DoD, intelligence community and federal civilian customers. In 2005, she became director, Advanced Network Systems. Atkins accepted the position of director, DSO in September 2006.
Atkins has a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech and a master of science degree in engineering administration from the George Washington University.
Atkins was interviewed by MIT Editor Harrison Donnelly.
Q: What is your role as director of the Defense Spectrum Organization?
A: With increased emphasis on network-centric operations, DoD’s spectrum access is vital to support the interconnection of sensors, shooters, command, control and intelligence required by the warfighter. The DSO was established as a DoD center of excellence: an organization that could provide the breadth and depth of expertise to address all facets of spectrum engineering and management. Our role is to ultimately transform DoD spectrum management, transitioning from legacy spectrum management processes and capabilities to support future net-centric operations and warfare.
DSO develops integrated spectrum plans and strategies to address current and future needs for DoD spectrum access. We also provide direct operational support to the combatant commanders and DoD components in support of national security and military objectives. We support the ASD (NII) as well as the Joint Staff, the military departments and services, and the combatant commanders. My role as leader of the organization is to guide and facilitate, and to ensure that we’re developing innovative solutions to help ensure global spectrum access for U.S. and allied operations—now and into the future.
Q: What do you see as the most pressing issues facing your office?
A: Like other militaries around the world, the department has struggled to accommodate rapid changes in spectrum management techniques and new wireless technologies. To compound the problem, no other organization faces the diversity and complexity of environments that the DoD must operate within—especially with our global mission. We want to leverage advances in technology and link them to improved processes and architectures across the department. We are trying to figure out how to do more, within this finite resource—the electromagnetic spectrum. I will highlight a few of the key issues my office is focused on:
First, we need to ensure that the DoD is developing, acquiring and fielding spectrum-dependent systems that can operate as intended in their electromagnetic environment. We still have challenges in this area. We need to ensure that we can obtain adequate spectrum access for these systems wherever they are deployed. This includes looking at the regulatory implications world-wide, as well as ensuring these systems will not be degraded by, or cause degradation to, other systems operating in the same environment. That’s a collective team effort between not only the government, but also our industry counterparts that are developing these systems for the military.
We face continuing pressures on spectrum from commercial interests, and increasing encroachment in spectrum bands that we use for DoD systems—in the U.S. and internationally. Our concern is not just for communication systems, but our need to protect all spectrum-dependent systems such as radar, sensors, weapons systems, navigation and a whole host of other capabilities that are dependent on spectrum access. Spectrum is not only a force enabler, but also a force multiplier. Without adequate spectrum access—around the world—U.S. and coalition forces cannot operate effectively and maintain needed superiority.
Another area of concern, as well as benefit, is advanced wireless technologies—the department wants to leverage the tremendous advances being provided by commercial and government developments, but we need to do it smartly. We need to ensure we do not suffer from degraded operational capability that can occur if technologies are adopted and fielded without ensuring that these technologies will not cause unintended electromagnetic effects. As an example, a current area of concern is the potential for some WiMAX systems to degrade military capabilities in certain frequency bands. By the way, DoD thinks WiMAX is a great technology.
Last but not least, our spectrum management tools have not kept pace with our operations. Our spectrum information, information systems and related modeling and simulation capabilities are not adequate for the increasingly dynamic and congested electromagnetic environments we face. This limitation increasingly inhibits our ability to adequately plan and execute operations, which is obviously of paramount importance.
Q: Your office is under DISA. What other DoD organizations are involved in making spectrum policy, and how are the responsibilities divided?
A: The DSO is a center of excellence for spectrum support to the military departments, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, combatant commands and the Office of the Secretary of Defense—all of which have a role in terms of spectrum policy development, direction and implementation. The ASD NII provides policy, oversight and guidance for all DoD spectrum matters, nationally and internationally. The Joint Chiefs of Staff recommends policies and procedures in the interest of the combatant commands. The military services implement spectrum policies within their respective military departments. The role of DISA, and DSO specifically, in spectrum policy is to identify policy options and recommendations for the ASD NII to consider implementing across the department. A large part of our function is to be the ‘glue’ to pull all of these organizations together, to discuss the military’s requirements and how we might want to proceed in formulating the right spectrum policy for the effects we are trying to achieve across the department.
Q: The DSO has been around for more than a year. What do you see as its chief accomplishments so far?
A: We have accomplished a great deal over this last year—not only within my own organization but across the DoD spectrum community as a whole. One such team effort has been our preparation for the World Radiocommunication Conference 2007 [WRC-07]. We have had a tremendous level of effort, not only from my organization but also from across the DoD, in preparing for the conference. The DSO plays a lead role, in support of ASD NII, in shaping the department’s strategy and coordinating DoD’s efforts in support of that strategy. As the conference proceeds, we’re in a very good position with regard to protecting the department’s and the U.S’s interests across all of the critical agenda items that we have been following. That is due in large part to a very concerted effort within the DoD and the U.S. delegation to address these key issues. This effort has included outreach to military and civilian partners and colleagues across the world.
Another significant achievement was the result of the auction last year in the U.S. of the 1710 to 1755 megahertz band, which impacted not only the DoD but several federal agencies. In coordination with NII, we initiated the Defense Spectrum Relocation Management Activity to facilitate coordination between the military departments and commercial Advanced Wireless Systems licensees. Our goal is to ensure successful spectrum relocation for our own systems, while enabling the build out of the commercial systems. We’ve just started that process, standing up a portal at the end of July to enable that coordination. We are already working directly with more than 60 commercial providers—evaluating approximately 50,000 locations—based on the licenses that were sold last year. Although we have two to four years to transition our systems out of the band, we are trying to accelerate that process wherever possible. This is a team effort, not only within the department but also with the commercial providers. We all want this to be a success.
We’ve also done a lot of good work with the Presidential Spectrum Policy Initiative. We are engaged across multiple working groups and interagency activities to reform how we do spectrum management nationally, very much in concert with the initiatives that we’re undertaking within the department. Our focus is to improve the tools and processes and gain greater efficiency and effectiveness in how we manage and use the spectrum nationally. We have made great progress in collaborating and aligning not only within DoD, but also nationally under the purview of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration [NTIA].
This year we published the Defense Spectrum Management Architecture [DSMA], which is the department’s enterprise architecture for spectrum management. The DSMA was the result of a great team effort, developed in concert with the military departments, combatant commands, ASD NII and the Joint Staff. It includes a set of architecture products that define how we manage and use the spectrum today, and how we need to do things in the future. Think of the DSMA as a roadmap or blueprint to guide the department to transform spectrum management from where we see it today to where we believe it needs to be in the future. The department will use the DSMA to support requirements definition, guide acquisition decisions and enable successful planning and operations.
It is essential that all organizations involved in military operations have the ability to exchange information on spectrum-related issues in a simple, common and well-understood format. We’ve made great strides in that area this year, nearing completion of a DoD spectrum data standard that is also consistent with NATO and federal government data standards, the latter of which are established by the NTIA. Spectrum does not respect boundaries, so we want to ensure we can share data to effectively use tools to coordinate, deconflict usage and plan for the future.
The last item I would like to mention is the continued progress in assessing and demonstrating new spectrum-sharing technologies. Much promise lies in the development of “dynamic spectrum access” and technologies such as software-defined radio and cognitive radio. We continue to work closely with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency [DARPA] to test and demonstrate their neXt Generation technologies. These demonstrations have clearly showed the benefits of dynamic spectrum technologies, which include mitigation of interference and better, or increased, spectrum utilization. We are working closely with DARPA on nearer-term insertion of some of these technologies in current radios, while continuing to mature not only the technologies, but the tactics, techniques and procedures to effectively exploit them.
Those are just a few highlights. There are many other accomplishments, including our continued operational support to mitigate unintended interference from counter-IED systems, efforts to strengthen spectrum policies and strategic planning documents, documenting best practices and improving our automated spectrum tools. We obviously do not do all of this alone—the DSO supports all of these areas in close partnership with OSD, the Joint Staff, the military departments and the combatant commanders.
Q: You mentioned the World Radiocommunication Conference. What do you anticipate will be some of the most important issues for the U.S. military to be considered at the conference?
A: There are several WRC agenda items critical to the military, and we continue to work closely within the DoD and the U.S. WRC delegation to protect and advocate essential military requirements. The most critical concern that we have is Agenda Item 1.4, which is looking at identification of one or more bands for International Mobile Telecommunications [IMT] systems—commercial mobile communications devices. One of the bands that has been proposed for IMT is the 3.4-4.2 gigahertz band, which happens to be a band that we use for critical military radar systems. It is also widely used by fixed satellite systems. Unfortunately, sharing studies have clearly demonstrated that these IMT systems are not compatible with existing users in this band, including the fixed satellite systems. We are also very concerned about proposals to reallocate High Frequency spectrum to commercial broadcasters. This could severely impact not only our U.S military operations, but also those of our coalition partners. By the time this article is published, I’m hopeful that we will be able to say we were successful in these as well as other key areas of interest.
Ambassador Russell, the U.S. ambassador for the WRC-07, has often referred to the WRC as the ‘Spectrum Olympics,’ and I can’t think of a better analogy. This is not a one-time event. In fact, preparations for the next WRC, in 2011, will begin in earnest immediately following the conclusion of this conference. And as I have often said, spectrum is the ultimate team sport—especially in the international activities such as the WRC. It takes concerted and continual preparation, collaboration and outreach to be successful.
Q: You have spoken frequently about the difficult spectrum issues posed by operations in Southwest Asia, particularly involving anti- IED jamming. What evidence do you have of progress in overcoming these problems?
A: There’s been a lot of progress. It would not be appropriate for me to go into details, but I will talk about some of the activities that our organization has undertaken. I can’t stress enough that this has also been a team effort, with many organizations focused on this high priority issue. DSO—the Joint Spectrum Center specifically— has provided direct support to the warfighter, including analysis support, training, the development of tactics, techniques and procedures [TTPs], and the enhancement of automated tools to mitigate the potential for unintended electromagnetic interference to our own communications systems. The JSC also established an Operational Spectrum Analysis Cell, which provides a team of engineers that supports spectrum managers and electronic warfare personnel in the CENTCOM theater. We also send out interference resolution teams, as required in theater, to support these issues.
In parallel with our operational support, we’re also working closely with the services and the Joint IED Defeat Organization to test these counter-IED systems before they go into theater. The intent is to proactively tweak the C-IED systems to mitigate electromagnetic interference with our own communications, and to develop the appropriate TTPs that can go into theater with these systems to mitigate the interference that we were seeing previously. So a lot of progress has been made.
Q: What can be done to improve trust between industry and government over spectrum allocation issues?
A: There has historically been a tension in the spectrum management community, because it’s been seen as a win-lose argument. Somebody has to lose for someone else to gain, from a spectrum management perspective. I strongly believe we have to look at this problem through a different lens. Ultimately we all have the same spectrum challenges and goals. Collectively we should refocus on how we can better exploit the spectrum, use it more efficiently, and coexist with other users to share this precious resource. We need to focus on technologies and techniques that allow us to move toward that common goal of improved access.
Key to our success is a better understanding of each other’s environment, concerns and implications. The government doesn’t always fully understand industry’s point of view, and vice versa. If we better understand each other, we can make better decisions.
This is going to take a concerted effort, not just between the DoD and industry, but across DoD, other federal agencies, industry and academia. The bottom line is that coexistence and cooperation/collaboration are key to our future success. I can’t stress enough that we need to develop win/win strategies together—and trust one another enough to make it happen.
Q: You came to DSO from Cisco. How has your private sector experience shaped how you go about your current job?
A: The biggest benefit from that experience has been a perspective of balance. It goes back to industry and government understanding one another. My experiences allow me to understand the drivers and implications for both the government and industry. It allows me to make better decisions, because I can understand and provide a balanced perspective on the issues. As I said, ultimately we all want the same thing, and we understand that there are competing interests that are all important to our nation, in terms of economic growth and prosperity as well as national security. One of my goals is to enable increased understanding across government and industry leadership, so we as a department and nation can make better decisions from a spectrum management perspective.
Q: What are some of the key technological issues and challenges facing defense spectrum management?
A: From a technology standpoint, a lot of great work has been done on dynamic spectrum access technologies. DARPA is on the forefront of a lot of that work, and they have made great progress, but we still have a long way to go. We need to focus on expanding and maturing those technologies, and developing the tactics, techniques and procedures that will allow us to exploit those technologies. But one of our major challenges is non-technical in nature. The current regulatory framework is not conducive to fully accepting and exploiting these technologies. Though we have to continue to mature these technologies, the ‘long pole in the tent’ is addressing the policy and regulatory aspects that will allow us to fully exploit them in the future. Again, we need to start looking at some of these issues through a different lens—in this case ensuring our regulatory framework, nationally and internationally, is flexible enough to accommodate and promote emerging technologies that will be key to our future success.
Q: You will be a featured speaker at the Defense Spectrum Summit in December. What would you like see accomplished there?
A: What we’re trying to do is continue to educate, share information and enhance collaboration and communication across the entire community. From my perspective, the key area that we’re going to be focused on is to ensure that folks understand that we cannot degrade critical military capabilities due to restrictions placed on spectrum use for our systems. We have a collective responsibility to understand those implications, and proactively mitigate those impacts through balanced approaches. It’s all about enabling the men and women who are protecting our nation here and abroad. We can’t afford to put their lives in jeopardy, because they don’t have the spectrum access they need to perform their mission. So that’s an overarching goal—to have people understand that we must work collectively to address these hard issues.
Q: What other initiatives would you like to highlight as successful and deserving of greater attention?
A: One area of high importance to DISA, as well as the department, is the development of joint, net-centric and dynamic spectrum management planning and operations tools. The Global Electromagnetic Spectrum Information System [GEMSIS] will assist the warfighter in maximizing his or her access to the electromagnetic spectrum to conduct net-centric operations and warfare. GEMSIS will become a joint program of record this fiscal year, ultimately resulting in an integrated set of capabilities—think of it in terms of a suite of services—to automate the planning and execution of spectrum operations and planning. GEMSIS is pivotal to our spectrum strategy and future success.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?
A: I am very proud to be part of this team, and of the hard work that my team and the entire department have done over the past year. We’ve made a lot of progress, and I could not be more confident in our collective ability to drive positive change in this area. Our goal is to enable and empower the men and women who are protecting our nation and our lives. It is for those men and women that we are working, and will continue to work, to protect—with your help and support. ♦
