The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee will refocus,...
The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee will refocus, at least in part, on enforcement issues, now that its initial work on spectrum sharing is largely complete. Members approved a new enforcement committee during a meeting at NTIA headquarters (see separate…
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report in this issue). NTIA released a document (http://1.usa.gov/14I65pg) on suggestions for future issues that deserve CSMAC attention. CSMAC member Dale Hatfield, a former FCC and NTIA official, suggested the launch of the enforcement committee. “The way I envision it, it goes beyond just the sort of normal co-channel, adjacent interference, but also goes to issues like ... jamming, incidental radiation, all kinds of interference as well,” he said. Hatfield said enforcement will have to be built into future spectrum rules “right from the beginning.” “There are people who are actively out there today ... the renegade FM stations in New York City,” said Dennis Roberson, CSMAC member from the Illinois Institute of Technology. “They're absolutely illegal and they're out there in large numbers today and we are not able to enforce existing rules for well-known systems.” “In order to accommodate the explosive growth in wireless networks of all types, wireless communications devices and systems must increasingly operate in closer proximity in frequency, space and time and, accordingly, the risk of disruptive and harmful interference is inevitably increased,” Hatfield suggested in written comments incorporated into the NTIA document. “In addition, increased sharing of spectrum between federal government and non-federal devices and systems creates new challenges in terms of institutional relationships and interagency processes for detecting, identifying, locating, mitigating and reporting interference sources.” The purpose of the group would be to “help the NTIA develop new or revised strategies for responding more efficiently and effectively to the fundamental technological, operational and other trends that continue to create an increasingly complex interference and enforcement environment,” the document said. NTIA also asked CSMAC to look at how to provide the government with greater flexibility and options through access to non-federal bands and a committee was formed on that topic as well. “Federal agencies and particularly the Department of Defense need significant amounts of spectrum for large training exercises, however, the United States cannot afford to obligate so much spectrum all the time for such exercises,” NTIA said. “What approaches to authorization, coordination would facilitate access to spectrum for training? Should DOD expect to pay license holders for that access? Should DOD expect to pay for access even where the license holder does not provide coverage?” Other working groups are to examine transitional sharing, spectrum management via databases and quantification of federal spectrum use.