technical frameworks for specrum licensing in australia

Technical Frameworks for Specrum Licensing in Australia

Mark Arkell

Senior Engineer Spectrum Planning BranchInputs to Industry Division

Technical Frameworks for Spectrum Licensing

• Background• Technical Planning Process• Technical Rules• Existing (Incumbent ) Services• Further information

Licences 3 Types

Class

Apparatus

Spectrum

Radiocommunications Licensing

Background->Technical Planning Process->Technical Rules->Existing Services

Spectrum Licensing Policy Objectives

• Allow market to determine best use of band• Encourage spectrum efficiency, to address increasing

demand for spectrum• Improve services available to public, by encouraging

competition• Encourage new technologies• Encourage trading in the secondary market


Spectrum Licences Technical Considerations

• technology-neutral access to “spectrum space”

– optimised for most likely service usage• packaging - technology and competition considerations

– defines the product to be sold• manage interference across frequency and geographic

boundaries


Spectrum Auctions

• Spectrum Licence auctions have been held for the following bands:

– 500 MHz (Land Mobile) - 800 MHz (PCS)

– 1800 MHz (PCS) - 2 GHz (3G Mobile)

– 3.4 GHz (FWA) - 27 GHz (FWA)

– 28 GHz (LMDS)


Spectrum Space

defined by geographical space and frequency


Example: Spectrum Space 2 GHz Band Auction - Areas


Example: Spectrum SpaceFrequency Lots 2 GHz


Technical Planning Process

• Governed by the Radiocommunications Act 1992• ACMA Engineers design the ‘Technical Framework’, ie.

the technical rules for the Spectrum Licences.• Industry consultation • Technical Liaison Group is set up to consult with

industry on their requirements


Technical Liaison Group

• Usually chaired by ACMA - may include vendors, carriers and incumbents representatives

• Tasked to develop a technical framework

• Technical framework can be optimised for a chosen service (eg. CDMA cellular mobile), if necessary


Technical Framework• Has the following elements, for interference management:

1. Out-of-area emission limits

2. Out-of-band emission limits

3. Area boundary management arrangements

4. Guidelines for further managing interference to and from other services


1. Out-of-area Emissions• A Core Condition (in Licence)

• Power limit throughout the area – to limit emissions over the area boundary

• Radiated Power (EIRP) limits used– more flexibility for operator– balance between Tx power and antenna – eg. 2 GHz FDD Band limit is

55 dBm/30 kHz EIRP (200 kHz ch = 2kW EIRP)


2. Out-of-band emissions

• A Core Condition (in Licence)• Radiated power (EIRP) limits used again• Different limits at edges to help protect:

– frequency adjacent licences

– adjacent band services (eg cordless, FS)• Levels may be varied through agreement with affected

adjacent licensees.


2 GHz Spectrum Chart (Band Edges)


1900 2000 2100 2200 2300

21092025

14 MHz

1M 2M 3M 4M 5M 6M

New FS

1920

1960 2150

1935 2125

FDD FDD

FDD''

FDD

FDD''

Capital Cities

Regional Area

Canberra

1M

2M

3M

4M

5M

6M

1I 2I 3I 4I 5I 6I

1M'

2M'

3M'

4M'

5M'

6M'

1I' 2I' 3I' 4I' 5I' 6I'

29 MHz

Current FS

1880

DECT/PHS

Deep Space Deep Space

SPACE (Uplink) SPACE (Downlink)

1980 2010 2025 2120 2170 2290

MSS (Uplink) MSS (Downlink)

Example Out-of-band mask: 2 GHz

2 GHz Tx Emission Masks - Base Stations

45

55

-40

-30

-20

-10

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Freq. offset from band edge (MHz)

EIR

P p

er 3

0 kH

z (d

Bm

) FDD Mask (eg. edge at 2130 MHz)

TDD Mask (eg. edge at 1905 MHz)

TDD/PHS Boundary Mask (edge at 1900 MHz)


3. Area Boundary Management

• Out-of-area limits are sometimes not enough

(usually for lower frequency bands)

• Additional procedures developed to manage interference:

– Device boundaries

– Deployment constraints


Device Boundaries

• Define a potential interference zone around a transmitter

• Defined by acceptable levels of interference

• MUST be contained within licensed area


Device Boundaries

Device boundary

Licence boundary


Device Boundaries

Calculated using:

– transmitter EIRP and antenna height

– propagation model (usually developed from industry standard models)

– a specified ‘acceptable’ interference level at the notional Receiver at the boundary


Deployment Constraints

• Encourages users to maintain a site sense.

(ie, Base Tx in the higher band) useful for high-to-low services (eg. 3G cellular mobile)

• Lower band has a lower EIRP limit (radiated max. power for mobiles)

• Lower band also has a 20m limit on effective antenna height for fixed transmitters

• Possibility of other types of services is accommodated


4. Advisory Guidelines

• Mainly manages interference with non-spectrum licensed services,

• but includes a “notional receiver” for SL

• Most important when there is a geographic boundary between SL and AL areas


4. Advisory Guidelines (con’t)

• eg. Non Spectrum Licensed services around the 2 GHz band include:

– FS microwave links (2.1 GHz Band)

– Mobile-satellite services

– Cordless systems (eg. DECT, PHS)

– Earth stations for Space services (deep space, space operations)


Spectrum Licensing Technical Rules:

• Core Conditions• Other Conditions of Licence• Agreements• Determination of ‘Unacceptable Interference’• Registration of Transmitters• Advisory Guidelines


Core Conditions

• Found on Licence

• core conditions specify for each licence:

– authorised frequency bands;

– authorised areas;

– out-of-band emission limits; and

– out-of-area emission limits


Other Conditions of Licence

• Interference Management Agreements

• Device Registration requirement

• Third Party Usage


Agreements

• To exceed the out-of-area core condition

• To exceed the out-of-band core condition

• To exceed the device boundary requirements


Determination of ‘Unacceptable Interference’

• Formal Legal Determination to define what is ‘Unacceptable Interference’

• Refers to Core Conditions• Contains Device Boundary criteria and Deployment

constraints• Refers to Advisory Guidelines for interference

management with other services


Registration of Transmitters

• Requirement under the Legal Determination• Transmitters must be registered before use• Full details provided for the ACA database

– Some exempted from registration (eg. Mobile handsets)• Certificate issued by an accredited person that devices

won’t cause unacceptable interference


Existing (Incumbent) Services

• Many bands have incumbent services

– eg. 684 incumbent fixed links in 2 GHz band affected by declaration of the spectrum

• Incumbents are usually protected for some defined period

– eg. From Oct 2000 until Oct 2002 for 2 GHz Band

• Incumbents can only remain beyond this time with new licensee’s consent


Further Information

All documents (including information about Spectrum licensing, Auction results, Technical discussion papers) are available on the ACMA web site:

www.acma.gov.au

technical frameworks for specrum licensing in australia

Documents

band emission limits

spectrum spacefrequency

area emissionsa core

fdd band limit

area emission limits2

againdifferent limits

band emissionsa core

interference management