DARPA's Spectrum Collaboration Challenge picks contenders

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has selected 30 contenders for its Spectrum Collaboration Challenge.

The contest aims to encourage strategies for managing access to an increasingly crowded electromagnetic spectrum. The 30 competitors include 22 teams from academia and business, plus eight individuals. 

"Competitors will reimagine spectrum access strategies and develop a new wireless paradigm in which radio networks will autonomously collaborate and reason about how to share the RF spectrum, avoid interference, and jointly exploit opportunities to achieve the most efficient use of the available spectrum," a DARPA news release read.

The three-phase contest began in 2016 and will culminate in a final showdown in 2019. The top three finishers will receive prizes of $2 million, $1 million and $750,000 respectively.

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