BOOK - Flexible Radio Spectrum Access

There are many stakeholders in spectrum management: political; economic; legal; spectrum planning; equipment manufacturing; social and occupation related.   Flexible use requires a fundamental change in the way spectrum is managed. “Flexible Radio Spectrum Access” sets out the essential technical requirements for flexible spectrum access in a manner that helps to bridge the communication gap between the stakeholders by presenting the fundamentals of radio interference management in a flexible usage context, written in a manner that can be understood by those without significant previous exposure to the subject.  Sufficient issues are covered and at a sufficient level of detail to enable the limitations and possibilities of flexible spectrum use to become reasonably clear.

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CONTENTS

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Preface and Acknowledgements 1

Chapter 1 - Facilitating Innovation 9

1.1 The Regulator’s Bottom Line 10
1.2 Levels of Autonomy 11
1.3 Precursors for Flexible Spectrum Access 12
1.4 Reducing the Tyranny of Standards 13
1.4.1 Market Dominance 13
1.4.2 User Roaming 14
1.4.3 Interoperability 15
1.4.4 Simplified Interference Management 15
1.5 Harmonised Radio Spectrum Use 16
1.6 Danger of Too Few Technical Rules 17

Chapter 2 - Authorising Use of a Radio Spectrum Space 23

2.1 Licensing 26
2.1.1 Apparatus Licensing: Coordination Using Administrative Rules 27
2.1.2 Spectrum Licensing: Market-Based Coordination 27
2.1.3 Class Licensing: Dynamic Coordination in Common Spectrum 29
2.2 Authorisation and Coordination 30

Chapter 3 - Spectrum Access Rights 33

3.1 Pictorial Representation of Interference between Spectrum Spaces 34
3.2 Explicit Transmit Rights 35
3.3 Implicit Receive Rights 38
3.4 Rights of a Legacy Service 38
3.4.1 Converting Legacy Services into Spectrum Licences 39
3.4.2 Managing Loss of Spectrum Utility Caused by Legacy Services 40
3.5 Spectrum Access Rights and Device-Centric Management 42

Chapter 4 - Heart of the Solution 47

4.1 Service Types 47
4.2 Guard Space 50
4.2.1 Guard Band 50
4.2.2 Guard Area 50
4.3 Authorising Any Technology and Service 51
4.3.1 A Common Mental Block 52
4.4 Flexible Spectrum Access in Australia 52

Chapter 5 - Interference Categories 57

5.1 The Three Interference Categories 57
5.1.1 Interference Category A 57
5.1.2 Interference Category B 58
5.1.3 Interference Category C 59
5.2 Interference Benchmarks 60
5.3 Benchmarks for In-band Interference 62
5.3.1 Category A Benchmark 62
5.3.2 Category B Benchmarks 63
5.4 Benchmarks for Out-of-band Interference 65
5.4.1 Elements of a Receiver 65
5.4.2 Receiver Selectivity 66
5.4.3 Receiver Blocking 67
5.4.4 Receiver Spurious Response 67
5.4.5 Receiver Intermodulation 67

Chapter 6 - Practical Interference Benchmarks 73

6.1 Category A Benchmark: The Device Boundary Criterion 73
6.1.1 Power Spectral Density and Technology Neutrality 74
6.1.2 Propagation Model 75
6.1.3 Objectives for the Device Boundary 78
6.2 Category B Benchmark: Average Broadband Out-of-band Emission Limits 79
6.2.1 Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio (ACLR) 80
6.2.2 Category B Interference Scenarios 81
6.2.3 Managing the Category B Scenarios 82
6.2.4 “Near-Far” Interference 83
6.2.5 Managing “Near-Far” Interference 85
6.3 Category B Benchmark: Peak Out-of-band Emission Limits 86
6.4 Category B Benchmark: Average Discrete Out-of-band Emission Limits 88
6.5 Category C Benchmark: Model coordination Procedure 89
6.5.1 Propagation Model 91
6.5.2 Compatibility Requirement 91
6.6 Lessons from USA 800 MHz Public Safety Interference 92
6.7 Deployment Constraints 95
6.7.1 Effective Antenna Height 95
6.7.2 Restrictions on when the Model coordination Procedure is applied 95
6.7.3 Managing Category C Interference under Guard Space Authorisation98
6.8 Lessons from New Zealand: the Telecom and Bell South Dispute 99
6.9 Collision Avoidance Benchmark 100
6.10 Assigning Responsibilities for Interference Settlement 101
6.10.1 Spectrum Denial from First-in-Time Interference Settlement Policies 101
6.10.2 Settlement of Interference 102
6.10.3 The Special Case of Co-Located Services 103
6.10.4 The Co-Location Benchmark 105
6.10.5 Underlay Services and Spectrum Exclusivity 105
6.11 Benchmark for Minimum Frequency Bandwidth 107

Chapter 7 - Spectrum Access Rules 111

7.1 Constructing a Set of Interference Benchmarks 112
7.2 Parameter Values for the Interference Benchmarks 113
7.3 Establishing the Technology and Service Model 114
7.4 Integrating Type Approval with Authorisation 116
7.5 Distinguishing New Types of Equipment 116
7.6 Outsourcing Authorisation Certification and its Associated Liability 117
7.7 Rollout Obligations 118

Chapter 8 - The Register 121

8.1 Data to Support Explicit Transmit Rights 122
8.2 Data to Support Implicit Receive Rights 123
8.3 Data to Support the Rights of a Legacy Service 125

Chapter 9 - Dynamic Spectrum Access 129

9.1 Device Authorisation 131
9.1.1 Maximum Transmitter Power 131
9.1.2 Overall Range of Available Transmit Frequencies 132
9.1.3 Unavailable Transmit Frequencies 132
9.1.4 Available Receive Frequencies 133
9.2 Device Coordination 133
9.3 Commercial Cognitive Radio 134
9.4 FCC 3650 MHz Planning Experiment 135

Chapter 10 - Wrap Up 139

10.1 Licensing Methods and Interference Management 140
10.2 Preserving the Utility of a Flexible Spectrum Licence 141
10.2.1 A Space-Centric Approach 142
10.2.2 The Role of Guard Space in Flexible Spectrum Licensing 142
10.2.3 Spectrum Access Rights 143
10.2.4 Authorising Transmitters not Compliant with the Transmit Rights 144
10.3 Outsourcing Flexible Radio Spectrum Access 144

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