Reactive Interference Management for Radio Astronomy in Radio Dynamic Zones Using ASTRA

Radio Dynamic Zones (RDZs) enable diverse spectrum-sharing scenarios, including advancing coexistence between active and passive spectrum users. We consider RDZs where radio astronomy coexists with active transmitters and introduce the Adaptive Spectrum Tuning and Reactive Allocation (ASTRA) framework, used by a Zone Management System to manage spectrum access to transmitters. We develop and deploy the first RDZ testbed at a radio astronomy facility, the Hat Creek Radio Observatory, to demonstrate a practical solution for managing interference from active transmitters to radio telescopes in over-the-air experiments. To comprehensively evaluate our approach, we simulate RDZs of varying sizes and demonstrate that ASTRA maintains interference at the radio telescopes below acceptable thresholds while maximizing spectrum access to transmitters in the zone.