Medical Telemetry Has Enough Spectrum Without Added 1.4 GHz Band Use, Says Land Mobile Group
Philips Healthcare Systems and the Land Mobile Communications Council disagreed sharply over whether the FCC should allow Wireless Medical Telemetry Service (WMTS) devices to operate on a secondary basis in the parts of the 1427-1432 MHz band not set aside for medical telemetry. On a second question that the Wireless and Public Safety bureaus also sought comments on in a March 16 notice, there was general support for a proposal by the Association of American Railroads that its members be allowed to operate end-of-train telemetry devices at transmit power of up to 8 watts.
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"The Commission has made generous allocations of spectrum available for WMTS use in recent years, and there is no record evidence to support a claim that those allocations are inadequate to meet medical telemetry requirements,” the land mobile council said. “If critical patient needs cannot be satisfied within the spectrum allotted, the solution is not to shift certain transmissions to secondary usage. … Instead, the FCC will need to identify alternative spectrum homes where these communications can be accorded primary or at least co-equal status with other spectrum users."
The questions that the bureaus posed suggest the complexity of the issues raised, the council said. “The FCC would have to address issues such as the need for monitoring capability and redundancy to prevent the WMTS devices from causing interference to primary users while still ensuring receipt of vital messages, the fact that medical personnel without communications expertise would need to be fully educated about the meaning of secondary operations … and the reality that the Commission could be placed in the position of having to direct medical facilities to cease operations of WMTS devices that are causing interference, irrespective of the critical nature of the communications being transmitted.”
But Philips, which asked for the rule change, said the FCC doesn’t have to worry that secondary use of WMTS devices would cause interference problems for primary users of the spectrum. “Modern cognitive technologies enable WMTS systems to utilize secondary spectrum effectively and seamlessly without fear of impairing patient safety or interfering with others,” the company said. Philips said its IntelliVue system, which would use the spectrum, “improves patient care, creates electronic health records, and reduces healthcare costs. … Authorizing WMTS systems to use the 1.4 GHz spectrum as intended would provide increased protection against interference and allow the needed density to be achieved where multiple large hospitals require thousands of devices to be deployed in close proximity."
The railroad association had asked in a 2007 petition for an increase in the power levels for end-of-train (EOT) devices that transmit on frequency pair 452/457.9375 MHz brake-pipe pressure and other data to the locomotive, where it can be read by the engineer.
Radio “communications systems are a vital component of the railroad industry’s operations, and the safe and efficient operation of rail freight transportation is increasingly dependent on reliable communications links,” the group said. The Union Pacific Railroad said, “Though EOT telemetry technology has been very reliable for many years, we find that the current trend towards longer trains is stretching the capabilities of the links. Trains 1.5 miles in length and even longer are becoming commonplace, and the increased link distance erodes link margins, causing more frequent lapses in link integrity.”
The land mobile council said the change wouldn’t pose interference concerns for its members. “Since AAR is the FCC’s certified frequency coordinator for the frequency pair in question as well as the frequencies adjacent to it, LMCC is confident that AAR will manage its frequency recommendations so as to avoid allowing interference from EOT devices to other railroad operations."