Operations for Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS)
Priority Access License (PAL) Database Technical Specification
Document WINNF-TS-0245
Version V1.2.0
3 March 2021
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This document specifies the Priority Access License (PAL) Database schema as per requirement (R2-SPU-03) [N.1]. The PAL Database is populated and maintained through cooperation between SAS Administrators. The Database represents the results of PAL auctions for the purposes of vetting a PAL Protection Area (PPA) claim, creating a PPA-ID, and approving CBSD spectrum grant requests under those licenses. In addition, the PAL Database records the results of agreements for PAL channel assignments, and when possible, the evolution of those agreements within each county when incumbent activity affects specific frequency allocations.
See [N.1] for definitions of terms used in this document.
CBSD - Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device
FCC - Federal Communications Commission
FRN - FCC Registration Number
HTTPS - Secure HTTP (e.g. with TLS)
JSON - Javascript Object Notation
PAL - Priority Access License
PPA - PAL Protection Area
SAS - Spectrum Access System
SAS Administrators shall engage in a reconciliation of the outcomes of FCC auctions and other actions resulting in PALs being issued to licensees within the CBRS band. This process shall consolidate information about the auctions from the FCC, and subsequently construct or update the PAL Database following any relevant activity (including any needed error resolution) around the state of a PAL, such as issuance, termination, or sale.
This specification uses information in the official results of PAL auction issued by the FCC [N.7], including the license ID, the licensee (referenced by name and FRN) and the geographical area (a county) of the PAL license.
All SASs shall utilize identical quasi-stable channel assignments for CBSDs exercising their PAL rights. The physical channel assigned to a PAL license is included in the primaryAssignment field in the database as specified in Section 6.1.3.
SAS Administrators shall ensure their own SASs are synchronized with the PAL Database on a daily basis. SAS Administrators shall make use of the PAL Database to perform verification of PAL holder rights to the relevant license areas during the separate process for registering PAL Protection Areas (PPAs) [See N.1, R2-SPU-04], and to make consistent channel assignments to CBSDs in the cluster list of that PPA [See N.1, R2-SPU-09].
Reflection in the PAL Database of any leasing arrangements made by Priority Access Licensees is for future study, subject to the requirements in [N.1].
The records in the PAL Database shall be encoded using JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), a widely accepted network data representation and exchange protocol. JSON encoded data is in the form of human readable single or multiple of "name"/"value" pair(s), where the "name" is typically a self-descriptive unique string tag identifying the information to be represented and the "value" is the information to be carried [N.2]. JSON allows a "value" be one of the four primitive types (respectively, string, number, boolean and null) and two structured types (JSON object and array). Brief definitions of all above primitive and structured data types are as follows:
An example of a JSON representation of a PAL Database record is as follows:
{
"palId": "PL-D01001-P1",
"licensee": "CBSD Operator No.1",
"userId": "23456789",
"registrationInformation": {
"frn": "23456789",
"registrationDate": "2017-06-01"
},
"license": {
"licenseId": "fccId123456789-1",
"licenseDate": "2017-07-01T00:00:00Z",
"licenseExpiration": "2031-03-01T00:00:00Z",
"licenseAreaIdentifier": "01001",
"licenseAreaExtent": "zone/county/census/2010/01001",
"licenseFrequencyChannelId": "1"
},
"licenseStatus": "VALID",
"channelAssignment": {
"primaryAssignment": {
"lowFrequency": 3550000000,
"highFrequency": 3560000000
},
"secondaryAssignment": {
"lowFrequency": 3580000000,
"highFrequency": 3590000000
}
}
}
For convenient sharing of the PAL Database among SAS Administrators, it will be represented as a set of files each containing a JSON list of records following the schema of PAL Database Info Records (see 6.1):
Table 1: PAL Database file contents
| Field | R/O | Field Definition |
|---|---|---|
NAME: palId DATA TYPE: string | Required | This parameter is the license ID of the PAL license that this record corresponds to, as defined in the FCC PAL auction results [N.7]. |
NAME: licensee DATA TYPE: string | Required | Human-readable name of the PAL licensee |
NAME: userId DATA TYPE: string | Required | By default, this string represents the User Registration Identifier (UR-ID) of the Priority Access Licensee, which is used by CBSDs requesting PAL spectrum grants from SAS to identify which Priority Access Licensee they are operated by. Alternatively, a globally unique identifier different from UR-ID for a Priority Access Licensee may also be used in this field. In this case, the SAS shall associate the value of this field with UR-ID of Priority Access Licensee in order to determine the PAL right of CBSDs. An example of such globally unique identifier is the FRN of the PAL Licensee. For PAL commercial operation, the global unique identifier will be used in the database. |
NAME: registrationInformation DATA TYPE: object: RegistrationInformation | Required | Contains various extensible registration information for the PAL licensee |
NAME: license DATA TYPE: object: LicenseInformation | Required | Information regarding the license described in this PAL database record |
NAME: licenseStatus | Optional | If included, the value is "VALID". |
NAME: channelAssignment DATA TYPE: object: ChannelAssignment | Required | The consistent channel assignment information for this PAL. |
This section contains detailed field-by-field specifications for PAL Database Info records. Each field is indicated as "Required" or "Optional". The definitions of these indicators are as follows:
The tables of fields in this section have a column marked "R/O" that indicates whether a particular field is required or optional.
Table 2: PalInfoRecord object
Table 3: RegistrationInformation object
| Field | R/O | Field Definition |
|---|---|---|
NAME: frn DATA TYPE: string | Required | The FRN of the licensee |
NAME: registrationDate DATA TYPE: string | Optional | Date of licensee FCC registration. It is expressed using the format, YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ, as defined by [N.6]. |
NAME: licenseConditions DATA TYPE: string | Optional | Human-readable string or reference annotating the certification |
NAME: callSign DATA TYPE: string | Optional | The call sign of the licensee (as assigned by FCC). |
This object is extensible and other fields can be added to reflect more needed information about the PAL licensee as reflected in the FCC auction records and needed for SAS verification of PAL licensee identity.
Table 4: LicenseInformation object
| Field | R/O | Field Definition |
|---|---|---|
NAME: licenseId DATA TYPE: string | Optional | The FCC-issued license ID. |
NAME: licenseDate DATA TYPE: string | Optional | Date of the start of the license period. It is expressed in UTC using the format, YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ, as defined by [N.6]. |
NAME: licenseExpiration DATA TYPE: string | Required | Date of license expiration. It is expressed in UTC using the format, YYYY-MM- DDThh:mm:ssZ, as defined by [N.6]. |
| NAME: | ||
|---|---|---|
| licenseAreaIdentifier DATA TYPE: string | Required | FIPS county code (a 5-digit number where the first two digits represent the state and the last three digits represent the county within the state) |
NAME: licenseAreaExtent DATA TYPE: string | Required | Reference to a record in a geographical database represented as a SAS-SAS Zone record (See [N.3]) providing the extents of the license area. (e.g. “zone/county/census/$YEAR/$FIPS”) |
NAME: licenseFrequencyChannelId DATA TYPE: string | Optional | The FCC-supplied identifier for the frequency channel for the PAL. |
Table 5: ChannelAssignment object
| Field | R/O | Field Definition |
|---|---|---|
NAME: primaryAssignment DATA TYPE: object: FrequencyRange (See [N.4]) | Required | The primary channel allocation for this PAL. |
NAME: secondaryAssignment DATA TYPE: object: FrequencyRange (See [N.4]) | Optional | The secondary channel allocation for this PAL, if possible to designate. If a PAL is blocked by transient incumbent activity, the PAL CBSDs using those spectrum grants will be relocated by the SAS into this secondary assignment if possible. |
| Version | Date | Action |
|---|---|---|
| V1.0.0 | 3 April 2017 | Approved |
| V1.0.0 | 26 July 2017 | Document number updated to reflect change in release policy |
| V1.1.0 | 3 September 2020 | Technical revision to clarify the userID field |
| V1.2.0 | 19 January 2021 | Technical clarification on palld and required/optional fields. |
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