DENVER -- The Software Defined Radio (SDR) Forum, (www.sdrforum.org), a nonprofit international industry association supporting the advancement of reconfigurable wireless technology, has issued a report identifying how SDR and cognitive radio technology can facilitate implementing a nationwide interoperable broadband network in the 700 MHz spectrum that conforms to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations.
Initiated by the Forum’s Public Safety Special Interest Group (SIG) and prepared by an ad hoc committee, the 21-page report (“Technology Considerations and Recommendations for Software Defined Radio Technologies for the 700 MHz Public/Private Partnership”) cites the upcoming auction and licensing of the 700 MHz spectrum as a unique opportunity to fulfill the growing demand for spectrum resources for commercial and public safety broadband applications.
The report notes that the FCC has adopted the strictest ever build-out rules for wireless services and established rules to govern the partnership between commercial carriers and the public safety community in sharing spectrum and network resources. Though it acknowledges that improving public safety communications through sharing resources with a commercial system is an innovative concept for using the new 700 MHz spectrum, the report recognizes the challenges that implementing the proposed network presents. Derived from the FCC requirements, the challenges include meeting the divergent needs of commercial and public safety users; coverage; shared operational control; robustness; adaptability; and spectrum use in the absence of network build-out.
Along with the challenges, the new supply of spectrum and the associated regulations also present new opportunities for spectrum access and deployment of wireless networks, the report says, adding: “The Forum believes that SDR, cognitive radio and dynamic spectrum access technology are a vital component of a system design providing the robustness, flexibility and efficiencies necessary to meet the FCC’s expectations and the communications needs of a wide range of users.”
Software Defined Radio (SDR) Forum