The wireless technology industry is dynamic and visionary leaders play an important role in driving innovation and addressing critical challenges. They need to have a clear vision for their business and be able to communicate and inspire customers and employees to follow it. Fernando Murias, Chairman & CEO of Digital Global Systems Inc., is a recognized leader for his vision of safeguarding critical assets and optimizing networks for the dawning age of 5G. He emphasizes the macroeconomic advantages of dynamic spectrum sharing, highlighting its potential to deliver tremendous economic and national security benefits, including applications in smart cities, telehealth, and national security.
Education & Career
Fernando Murias earned a BS in Accounting & Economics from the University of Maryland – Robert H. Smith School of Business. He also holds an Accounting & Economics degree from the University of Maryland College Park. Fernando worked with Charity Works, DC, and was the chairman of the Greater Washington Sports Alliance Foundation from August 2002 to December 2016. He worked with PwC for 16 years in various leadership roles from 1997 to 2013. He has been a dedicated philanthropist and has been involved in various charitable organizations throughout his career.
Changing the Wireless Technology
Digital Global Systems was founded in 2013 with the intention of simplifying wireless spectrum management. The company blends broad experience and deep expertise in the fields of defense, transportation, utilities, public safety, and telecoms. In the past, telcos, government agencies, and enterprise customers deployed spectrum analyzers to find trouble spots in their communication networks, each requiring a trained RF (Radio Frequency) engineer to interpret the findings. Fernando saw a way to utilize distributed computing to analyze the spectrum, find anomalies such as interference or degraded performance at the point of intercept, and report this to stakeholders in layman’s terms.
Since then, Digital Global Systems have developed the ability to optimize the spectrum automatically. The company achieved this by giving real-time RF awareness data to network infrastructure components. This allows operators to pack the wireless spectrum more densely without increasing interference. DGS’s patented technology is the foundation for dynamic spectrum sharing, a key pillar in the 2023 National Spectrum Strategy released by the White House. With over 200 patents, DGS is at the forefront of utilizing advanced machine learning and AI to optimize spectrum and enable new revenue-generating services autonomously.
Overcoming Challenges
The biggest challenge with any start-up with innovative technology is getting to the right person in an organization that understands the differentiation created by the technology. Innovation is critical, but getting large firms to adopt new technology takes a lot of persistence. Change is necessary but hard. Market trends like adopting machine learning and artificial intelligence continue to impact DGS’s client base. Staying ahead of these trends and adopting technology can also be a challenge. The company has done a great job of anticipating trends and developing patented solutions in these key areas.
Products and Solutions
Digital Global Systems have been awarded over 200 patents for advancing spectrum monitoring and RF data management, enabling the capture and analysis of wideband spectrum data at the point of intercept for applications that deliver real-time situational awareness. It offers off-the-shelf solutions consisting of hardware and/or downloadable software, which address needs across multiple verticals, and custom solutions that solve specific challenges. Its patent portfolio is second only to Qualcomm in the area of spectrum management and leads in several key areas, such as data collection, data processing, and dynamic spectrum sharing.
The company has developed sensor-based technology and accompanying software tools to capture and analyze the RF environment. These tools have been implemented in systems currently in use across multiple verticals. The goal of the toolsets is to provide information about all signals present in the RF environment, including, but not limited to, their properties, interactions, and overall spectrum utilization. The company refers to this information as “RF Awareness.”
Advancement in the Services
To take DGS a step further in its products and services, Fernando and his team look at market trends and stay close to understanding what customers are looking for to drive its development focus. The company focuses on chipsets, spatial and sub-orbital data utilization, and artificial intelligence. DGS is key in enabling dynamic spectrum sharing and the next generation of AI dealing with machine-to-machine automation. Providing information in near real-time by processing signals at the edge will enable a host of new services in the new digital economy.
Digital Global Systems has partnered with a large cable company that is building out a private wireless network across an entire city. The cable company will use shared spectrum from CBRS, and DGS RF Awareness ensures that they have available bandwidth for their customers while also identifying any interference sources. The company expects to expand this solution to major markets across the US over the next few years.
Staying Innovative and Balancing Opportunities
To stay innovative and competitive in the industry, the company stays updated with recent changes in the market, customer needs, and pending legislation. This allows it to form a strategy for its development effort. It also assesses technical advancement against market size and development efforts and prioritizes its R&D accordingly. It has a very high threshold for risk.
Digital Global Systems balances business opportunities and risks against development resource needs and ensures the movement of resources doesn’t disrupt its other development efforts. They are opening new markets with their innovation, so there will always be some inherent risk.
Substantial Growth and Development
Digital Global Systems development efforts have been their primary focus. The company recently exceeded 200 issued patents and expects to reach 300 by the end of 2024. They anticipated the need for software to be placed on chipsets while also recognizing that the US government would require new spectrum auctions to be shared. It is the only firm with a working solution to enable dynamic spectrum sharing, analyzing signals in the environment in multiple dimensions.
The company also anticipated the importance of machine learning and artificial intelligence in applications like theirs and started filing patents years ago in the space. The significant patent awards, along with market trends such as RAN functions moving into the cloud and the shift to an Open RAN architecture, have positioned the company for substantial growth. These developments have created a perfect storm for the company’s expansion.
Long-Standing Success and Focus on Innovation
The company’s focus leans heavily toward innovation. It is creating a transformative platform with the real value of creation resting in its technology. Fernando has successfully raised enough capital so that DGS can drive its development effort aggressively without being overly concerned about revenue generation. As the company moves out of its R&D phase into commercial production, it is now more focused on partnerships and revenue opportunities.
Fernando points out that DGS’s long-standing success stems from its clear understanding of market trends. This, coupled with its ability to stay ahead of these trends and a ferocious focus on product development and patent filings, has been the key. The company’s success in raising over $100 million without involving VCs or PE firms has allowed it to pivot quickly. This has been especially valuable in a market that has experienced numerous shifts over the past 10 years.
Collaborative Company Culture
Digital Global Systems technology is complex and on the leading edge. Creating a learning environment is a major priority in the field of engineering. The company’s CTO and Director of Engineering both have a key focus on developing its people. It has a small leadership team so they can have consistent communication, ensuring that no silos get created. Sharing ideas and creating a collaborative environment have been critical to the rapid development of its solutions.
