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Evolution and revolution arevery different processes …Adm. Vern Clark wrote about"revolution" while serving asChief of Naval Operations.Today, the retired CNO still refers to revolutionwhen publicly speaking about hisefforts to change and improve businessprocesses within the Navy. He confessedthat, even as the second longest servingCNO, he didn’t have time for “evolution,”which is why he unapologetically choserevolution.Evolution and revolution are very differentprocesses. While evolution is aprocess of gradual and relatively peacefulsocial, political or economic advance,revolution is a sudden, radical and absolutechange.Evolution in business processes providestime for people to accept slow methodicalchanges. On the other hand, revolutionis generally difficult for people toaccept due to rapid change and is oftenviewed negatively.Revolution is used to describe changein many business processes. In fact, moderncomputers and software are results ofa revolution that led to the Silicon Valleyhigh-tech empires in Northern California.The convergence of cellular technology,the Global Positioning System (GPS)and a long list of services, technologiesand devices are setting the stage for awireless revolution that will influence ourpersonal lives, business processes and thecapabilities of the Marine Corps and Navy,in such a way not seen since the introductionof modern warfare.The Marine Corps and Navy have globalresponsibilities, and they require a significantnumber of radio frequencies toconduct their worldwide operations. Allradio frequencies are recognized by internationallaw as belonging to each andevery nation.U.S. forces face access issues in eachcountry in which they operate due tocompeting civilian or government usersof national spectrum allocations. For example,when the Marine Corps and Navyare operating in Japan, the Japanese governmentregulates the radio frequenciesU.S. naval forces can use. The same is truefor Australia, Republic of Korea and allsovereign nations.But even though radio frequencies areallocated, a large portion of the assignedspectrum is used sporadically, and thereare wide variations in the use of assignedspectrum. The limited available spectrumand the inefficiency of its usage demandsa new methodology to exploit existingwireless spectrum "opportunistically."The wireless revolution is just beginning.A number of radical changes in theuse of the electromagnetic spectrum, orradio frequencies, will soon have “dynamic”effects on naval capabilities. DynamicSpectrum Access (DSA) refers to radiosand other wireless capabilities that dynamicallyadjust to the spectrum environmentand access radio frequencies thatare unused or underused.Access to spectrum, along with the correspondingcapabilities and bandwidthmay, by today’s standards, be almost limitless.The Defense Advanced ResearchProjects Agency (DARPA) has developedDSA capability known as "Next Generation"or "XG," which promises significantbenefits to forward deployed Marinesand Sailors. Commercial companies arealso developing DSA capabilities.The goals of the XG program are todevelop both the enabling technologiesand system concepts, along with newwaveforms to provide dramatic improvementsfor assured military communicationsin support of worldwide operations,according to DARPA.The XG program approach plans to investigatemethods to leverage the technologybase in microelectronics, withnew waveforms and medium access andcontrol protocol technologies, to constructan integrated system.The proposed program goals are to develop,integrate and evaluate the technologyto enable equipment to automaticallyselect spectrum and operating modes tominimize disruption to existing users andto ensure that U.S. forces can fully exploittheir superiority and investment in informationtechnology.DSA will revolutionize naval wirelesscapabilities by providing greater access tolimited spectrum resources. Today, thereare considerable obstacles to employingDSA. International and national spectrumgoverning bodies control spectrum usethrough rigid radio frequency allocationsthat often result in one frequency perwireless use.The benefits of DSA to the MarineCorps and the Navy will be impressive,but changes to national and especiallyinternational spectrum governance areinexplicably slow.The DON Spectrum Team is "plottinga spectrum revolution," and we are notalone. We are part of a global spectrumrevolutionary movement of industry, privateconsortia and other progressive nationson the leading edge of technology.A revolution is seldom accomplishedalone.For more information, please go to the DON CIOWeb site at www.doncio.navy.mil, or contact theteam at DONSpectrumTeam@navy.mil.CHIPS October – December 2008 41