Spectrum for Drones Not 'Major Focus' Now for FAA, Official Says
Spectrum issues for drones will likely remain "on the sidelines" for the Federal Aviation Administration as it continues to define a safe operating environment for unmanned aircraft, which is the "main event" now, an agency official said Thursday night on an FCBA panel. "I still think that spectrum issues will not be the major focus of the FAA for the next couple of years. That's my guess," said Mark Bury, FAA deputy chief counsel-regulation and enforcement. He said the agency expects to issue a final rule this spring on the operation of small drones in U.S. airspace, but that process hasn't focused on requiring any equipment that should be installed on drones nor has it focused on spectrum.
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Bury also said he gives FAA reauthorization a "50-50 chance this year" and it may include many mandates, which may address drone enforcement, privacy, registration and possibly spectrum. Patricia Paoletta, a technology lawyer with Harris, Wiltshire, said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., indicated he plans to address drone use in FAA reauthorization legislation and could also use his Mobile Now legislation to address spectrum needs for drones. She said there will be discussion about drones and spectrum this year, but said she doubts legislation will pass.
Ron Repasi, deputy chief engineer with the Office of Engineering and Technology, said the FCC would look at the risks of interference and the potential impacts on incumbent spectrum users. He described a future where passengers could board unmanned aircraft with their mobile wireless devices and be automatically flown to their destinations. While it probably won't happen in his time, he said, it's "not out of the realm of possibilities," he said. "But what that does require is a great demand on spectrum" for multiple sense-and-avoid technologies, continual communications with air traffic controllers about a drone's whereabouts, and passengers' data requirements for their wireless devices, he said.
Asked about coordination between the FCC and FAA, Repasi said the commission regularly coordinates with NTIA, the FAA's spectrum office and other agencies to ensure there are no interference issues when the FCC facilitates tests and demonstrations on various types of frequency bands. Bury said the FAA would coordinate with the FCC and other agencies on identifying spectrum best suited for a particular operation. For example, he pointed to Amazon's proposal to use drones for package delivery. "I still don't think we have the information we'd be looking for from Amazon to know exactly how they expect to control their unmanned aircraft in delivering packages," he said of its spectrum requirements. "What we're going to look for in terms of defining performance requirements for command and control, sense-and-avoid issues, how we're going to define performance requirements for autonomous operations. There's still ... [many] uncertainties."
Bury pointed to the concern about detecting and countering unmanned vehicles, an area the FAA has been working on with law enforcement officials. He said one proposal is using something resembling a "ray gun" that could bring down a drone by interfering with its use of radio frequencies. "Well, that's a great idea if you really want to counter" an unmanned aircraft system, he said. "But you would have real concerns, as the FAA has, [as] to the impact that would have on safety of the overall aviation system."
On the registration of small drones, Bury said "the last number I heard was 280,000 registrations" (see 1601060045). The Web-based system is registering only recreational aircraft, but he said he expects the system will accommodate all users of small unmanned aircraft by the end of March. He said the agency couldn't develop an IT platform to register all small drones. "We really wanted to avoid another IT meltdown like we had with the Affordable Care Act," he said, referring to the Healthcare.gov site. "That's a very sensitive issue in the administration."