FlexRDZ: Autonomous Mobility Management for Radio Dynamic Zones

TL;DR

FlexRDZ introduces a closed-loop autonomous RDZ manager that combines Hierarchical Task Networks with a digital twin to maintain RDZ health under mobile transmissions. The system uses a TIREM-based propagation model, accelerated by a neural RF-map approximator, and a GTPyhop-based HTN planner to generate interpretable action sequences in near real-time. In simulation on the Salt Lake City POWDER urban RDZ, FlexRDZ reduces mobile interference by up to $20$ dBm and lowers total leaked signal power while preserving test-transmitter uptime, outperforming PPO and naive baselines in leakage and interference metrics. The work demonstrates the potential of combining AI planning, digital twins, and physics-based modeling for autonomous, transparent management of dynamic spectrum environments, with future work focusing on generalization and real-world benchmarking.

Abstract

FlexRDZ is an online, autonomous manager for radio dynamic zones (RDZ) that seeks to enable the safe operation of RDZs through real-time control of deployed test transmitters. FlexRDZ leverages Hierarchical Task Networks and digital twin modeling to plan and resolve RDZ violations in near real-time. We prototype FlexRDZ with GTPyhop and the Terrain Integrated Rough Earth Model (TIREM). We deploy and evaluate FlexRDZ within a simulated version of the Salt Lake City POWDER testbed, a potential urban RDZ environment. Our simulations show that FlexRDZ enables up to a 20 dBm reduction in mobile interference and a significant reduction in the total power of leaked transmissions while preserving the overall communication capabilities and uptime of test transmitters. To our knowledge, FlexRDZ is the first autonomous system for RDZ management.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Mobile RDZ Deployment.
• Figure 2: FlexRDZ's AI Planner. RDZ maintenance is divided into four subtasks. For example, to satisfy an incumbent's request to adjust the area of the RDZ, the HTN returns the following atomic tasks: update the RDZ parameters (e.g., boundary coordinates), disable non-compliant transmitters, move mobile transmitters to the new zone, and enable all compliant transmitters.
• Figure 3: FlexRDZ Architecture.
• Figure 4: Simulated RF Map vs. Generated RF Map. The left figure represents the path-loss contour output of our simulation tool while the right figure represents the path-loss contour output of our model.
• Figure 5: Observed Mobile Leakage. A smaller number indicates less RDZ leakage, while a larger number indicates more leakage.