Spectrum management
Encyclopedia
Spectrum management is the process of regulating the use of radio frequencies
Radio frequency
Radio frequency is a rate of oscillation in the range of about 3 kHz to 300 GHz, which corresponds to the frequency of radio waves, and the alternating currents which carry radio signals...

 to promote efficient use and gain a net social benefit.
The term radio spectrum
Radio spectrum
Radio spectrum refers to the part of the electromagnetic spectrum corresponding to radio frequencies – that is, frequencies lower than around 300 GHz ....

 typically refers to the full frequency range from 3 kHz to 300 GHz that may be used for wireless communication. Increasing demand for services such as mobile telephones and many others has required changes in the philosophy of spectrum management. Demand for wireless broadband has soared due to technological innovation, such as 3G and 4G mobile services, and the rapid expansion of wireless internet services. Since the 1930s, spectrum was assigned through administrative licensing. Limited by technology, signal interference was once considered as a major problem of spectrum use. Therefore, exclusive licensing was established to protect licensees' signals. This former practice of discrete bands licensed to groups of similar services is giving way, in many countries, to a "spectrum auction
Spectrum auction
A spectrum auction is a process whereby a government uses an auction system to sell the rights to transmit signals over specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and to assign scarce spectrum resources. Depending on the specific auction format used, a spectrum auction can last from a single...

" model that is intended to speed technological innovation and improve the efficiency of spectrum use. During the experimental process of spectrum assignment, other approaches have also been carried out, namely, lotteries, unlicensed access and privatization of spectrum.

Governments and spectrum management

Most countries consider RF spectrum as an exclusive property of the state. The RF spectrum is a national resource, much like water, land, gas and minerals. Unlike these, however, RF is reusable. The purpose of spectrum management is to mitigate radio spectrum pollution
Radio spectrum pollution
Radio spectrum pollution is the straying of waves in the radio and electromagnetic spectrums outside their allocations that cause problems for some activities. It is of particular concern to radio astronomers....

 and maximize the benefit of usable radio spectrum.

The first sentence of the International Telecommunication Union
International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union is the specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies...

 (ITU) constitution fully recognises “the sovereign right of each State to regulate its telecommunication”. Effective spectrum management requires regulation at national, regional and global levels.

Goals of spectrum management include: rationalize and optimize the use of the RF spectrum; avoid and solve interference; design short and long range frequency allocations; advance the introduction of new wireless technologies; coordinate wireless communications with neighbours and other administrations. Radio spectrum
Radio spectrum
Radio spectrum refers to the part of the electromagnetic spectrum corresponding to radio frequencies – that is, frequencies lower than around 300 GHz ....

 items which need to be nationally regulated: frequency allocation
Frequency allocation
Use of radio frequency bands of the electromagnetic spectrum is regulated by governments in most countries, in a Spectrum management process known as frequency allocation or spectrum allocation. Radio propagation does not stop at national boundaries...

 for various radio services, assignment of license and RF to transmitting stations, type approval
Type approval
Type Approval is granted to a product that meets a minimum set of regulatory, technical and safety requirements. Generally, type approval is required before a product is allowed to be sold in a particular country, so the requirements for a given product will vary around the world...

 of equipment (for countries out of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

), fee collection, notifying ITU
Itu
Itu is an old and historic municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2009 was 157,384 and the area is 641.68 km². The elevation is 583 m. This place name comes from the Tupi language, meaning big waterfall. Itu is linked with the highway numbered the SP-75 and are flowed...

 for the Master International Frequency Register
Master International Frequency Register
The Master International Frequency Register is the formal database of satellite and terrestrial frequency assignments maintained by the International Telecommunication Union . Recording in the MIFR is the final stage of the frequency coordination process, and confers international recognition...

 (MIFR), coordination with neighbour countries (as there are no borders to the radio waves
Radio waves
Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum longer than infrared light. Radio waves have frequencies from 300 GHz to as low as 3 kHz, and corresponding wavelengths from 1 millimeter to 100 kilometers. Like all other electromagnetic waves,...

), external relations toward regional commissions (such as CEPT
CEPT
CEPT may refer to:* The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations* The CEPT, Ahmedabad* The Committee of European Pharmacy Technicians * Common Effective Preferential Tariff...

 in Europe, CITEL in America) and toward ITU
Itu
Itu is an old and historic municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2009 was 157,384 and the area is 641.68 km². The elevation is 583 m. This place name comes from the Tupi language, meaning big waterfall. Itu is linked with the highway numbered the SP-75 and are flowed...

.

RF spectrum management is treated as a natural monopoly
Natural monopoly
A monopoly describes a situation where all sales in a market are undertaken by a single firm. A natural monopoly by contrast is a condition on the cost-technology of an industry whereby it is most efficient for production to be concentrated in a single form...

 (to be compared to the concept of Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...

 and John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...

), as there is generally one regulator for any RF band. Discussions on central-planning versus market-based spectrum management are found at the 2008 PhD thesis http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/133/2/MazarAug08.pdf.

Spectrum use

Spectrum management is a growing problem due to the growing number of spectrum usage.
Over the air Broadcasting who started in 1920.
Government and Research which include defense, public safety (maritime, air, police), resource management, transport, radio astronomy, ...
Commercial services to the public (voice, data, home networking)
Industrial, scientific and medical services which include Telemedicine
Telemedicine
Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technologies in order to provide clinical health care at a distance. It helps eliminate distance barriers and can improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities...

, remote control
Remote control
A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.The remote control is usually contracted to remote...

, ...


In the 80s, the only concern was about radio and television broadcasting ; but today mobile phones and wireless computer networks
Wireless network
Wireless network refers to any type of computer network that is not connected by cables of any kind. It is a method by which homes, telecommunications networks and enterprise installations avoid the costly process of introducing cables into a building, or as a connection between various equipment...

 are more and more important as fewer than 15% of US households rely on over the air Broadcasting to receive their TV signals
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

.

The US spectrum is managed either by the FCC
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

 for non-governmental applications or by the NTIA for governmental applications. For shared application, both entities should agree.

The spectrum is divided into different frequency bands, each of them has a specific application. For instance, the frequency band that covers 300 kHz to 535 kHz is reserved for aeronautical and maritime communications and the spectrum from 535 kHz and 1605 kHz for AM radio. This process is called Allocation
Frequency allocation
Use of radio frequency bands of the electromagnetic spectrum is regulated by governments in most countries, in a Spectrum management process known as frequency allocation or spectrum allocation. Radio propagation does not stop at national boundaries...

.
The next step is to assign frequencies to specific users or classes of users. Each frequency band has a specific assignment that depends on the nature of the application and the numbers of users. Indeed, some applications requires a wider band than others (AM radio uses blocks of 10 kHz where FM radio uses blocks of 200 kHz). In addition, "guard band" are needed to keep the interference between applications to a minimum.

Status quo: the command and control approach

The Command and Control management approach is the one currently employed by most regulators around the globe. This approach advocates that the regulators be the centralized authorities for spectrum allocation and usage decisions. In the US example, the regulator (FCC) determines the use cases for specified spectrum portions, as well as the parties who will have access to them.
The Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

 (FCC) also regulates the physical layer technologies to be employed.

The allocation decisions are often static in temporal and spatial dimensions, meaning that they are valid for extended periods of time (usually decades) and for large geographical regions (country wide). The usage is often set to be exclusive; each band is dedicated to a single provider, thus maintaining interference free communication. The command and control management model dates back to initial days of wireless communications, when the technologies employed required interference-free mediums for achieving acceptable quality. Thus, it is often argued that the exclusive nature of the command and control approach is an artifact of outdated technologies.

The apparent advantages of this model is that services related to public interest
Public interest
The public interest refers to the "common well-being" or "general welfare." The public interest is central to policy debates, politics, democracy and the nature of government itself...

could be sustained. In terms of profitability, public interest programs, for example, over-the-air television, may not be as attractive as commercial ones in the provider perspective, but they are nevertheless beneficial for the society. Therefore, these services are often implicitly enforced by the regulator through the license agreements. Another advantage is the standardization that results from such a centralized approach. Such standardization is critical in networked industries, for which the telecommunication industry is a text-book example. One scholar has published an excellent paper that shows how the development of new technologies promises to bring considerably more spectrum to the public, but would require that society embrace a new paradigm of spectrum use.

GAO Report on Spectrum Management (2004)

Excerpt:

(GAO-04-666 http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04666.pdf)

Alternative Spectrum Governance Regimes and the Spectrum Debate

With the digital transition, spectrum management has entered to a new age. Full conversion to digital TV by 2/17/2009 (Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005
Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005
The Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005 is a United States Congress legislation enacted on October 20, 2005. This act deals with the cessation of the broadcasting of analog television and the subsequent implementation of digital television...

) allows broadcasters to use spectrum more efficiently and save space for the possibility of sharing spectrum.

Nowadays, spectrum sharing is under heated discussion. Exponential growth of commercial wireless calls for additional spectrum to accommodate more traffic flows. As a regulator, FCC responded to these needs by making more spectrum available. Secondary market
Secondary market
The page applies to the finanical term; For the merchandising concept, see Aftermarket .The secondary market, also called aftermarket, is the financial market where previously issued securities and financial instruments such as stock, bonds, options, and futures are bought and sold....

 is allowed to emerge and licensees are encouraged to lease use of spectrum to third parties temporarily. Making license transferable is an important attempt made by FCC to create incentives for broadcasters to share unused spectrum. More alternatives are underway.

Spectrum scarcity has emerged as a primary problem encountered when trying to launch new wireless services. The effects of this scarcity is most noticeable in the spectrum auctions where the operators often need to invest billions of dollars to secure access to specified bands in the available spectrum.
In spite of this scarcity problem, recent spectrum utilization measurements have shown that the available spectrum opportunities are severely underutilized, i.e. left unused. This artificial "access limitation" based scarcity is often considered to result from the static and rigid nature of the command and control governance regime. Interested parties have now started to consider possible improvements in the governance regime by relaxing the constraints on spectrum access. Two prevailing models are the "spectrum commons" and the "spectrum property rights" approaches.

Spectrum commons theory

Under US law, the spectrum is not considered to be the property of the private sector nor of the government except insofar as the term "government" is used to be synonymous with "the people".

The original use of the term "the commons" was the practice by which the public at large had a limited access to a bundle of rights regarding use of the commons; each person then had an interest in his own usage rights but the commons themselves were not property, nor were the rights "property" since they could not be traded. The term "tragedy of the commons
Tragedy of the commons
The tragedy of the commons is a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource, even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this...

" was popularized by Garrett Hardin
Garrett Hardin
Garrett James Hardin was an American ecologist who warned of the dangers of overpopulation and whose concept of the tragedy of the commons brought attention to "the damage that innocent actions by individuals can inflict on the environment"...

 in a 1968 article which appeared in "Science Magazine
Science Magazine
Science Magazine was a half-hour television show produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from 1975 to 1979.The show was hosted by geneticist David Suzuki, who previously hosted the daytime youth programme Suzuki On Science...

". The tragedy of the commons illustrates the philosophy that destructive use of public reservations ("the commons") by private interests can result when the best strategy for individuals conflicts with the "common good". In such a scenario, it asserts that even though the contribution of each "bad actor" may be minute, if summed over all bad actors the resource could be degraded to the point of uselessness. This concern has led to the regulation of the spectrum.

Spectrum property rights model

The spectrum property rights model advocates that the spectrum resources should be treated like land, i.e. private ownership of spectrum portions should be permitted. The allocation of these portions should be implemented by means of market forces. The spectrum owners should be able to trade these portions in secondary markets. Alternatively, the spectrum owners would be able to use their bands in any way they want through any technology they prefer (service and technology neutrality). Although the spectrum property rights model advocates exclusive allocation of transmission rights, it is not the same as a licensed regime. The main difference is the service and technology neutrality advocated in the spectrum property rights approach, as opposed to strict requirements on services and communications technologies inherent in licensed governance regimes.

The basic idea of spectrum property rights was first proposed by Leo Herzel in 1951, who was a law student at the time preparing a critique of the US FCC policies in spectrum management. Ronald Coase, a Nobel Prize winning economist, championed the idea of auctioning off spectrum rights as a superior alternative to the status quo in 1959. Coase argued that, though initial distributions may affect matters, property rights in a frequency will lead to the most efficient usage thereof. When he first presented his vision to the FCC, he was asked whether he was making a joke.

The supporters of the spectrum property rights model argue that such a management scheme would potentially promote innovation and more efficient use of spectrum resources, as the spectrum owners would potentially want to economize on their resources.

The spectrum property rights model is often critiqued for potentially leading to artificial scarcity and the hold-up problem. The hold-up problem refers to the difficulty in aggregation of the spectrum resources (which would be required for high bandwidth applications), as the individual spectrum owners could ask for very high compensation in return of their contribution. Since spectrum is a scarce finite good, there is a perverse incentive
Perverse incentive
A perverse incentive is an incentive that has an unintended and undesirable result which is contrary to the interests of the incentive makers. Perverse incentives are a type of unintended consequences.- Examples :...

 to not use it at all. Participants and existing spectrum owners in the spectrum market can preemptively buy spectrum, then warehouse it to prevent existing or newcomer competitors from utilizing it. The existing spectrum owner's official plans for this warehoused spectrum would be save it for an unknown future use, and therefore not utilize it at all for the foreseeable future. In a partial or incomplete "spectrum as property" regulatory regime, incumbent and grandfathered owners who obtained spectrum under the old cause and merit policy, can obtain windfalls in selling the spectrum they obtained for no cost under the earlier regulatory regime. When a regulatory regime changed to the property model, the original merit and cause guidelines for incumbent and grandfathered users are often removed, and no regulatory review mechanism exists to check if the merit guidelines are still being followed, and if not, revoke the spectrum license from the incumbent spectrum owner and reissue the spectrum to a new user under old merit guidelines or sell the spectrum inline with the new "spectrum as property" policy.

U.S. regulatory agencies

The Communications Act of 1934
Communications Act of 1934
The Communications Act of 1934 is a United States federal law, enacted as Public Law Number 416, Act of June 19, 1934, ch. 652, 48 Stat. 1064, by the 73rd Congress, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, codified as Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code, et seq. The Act replaced the...

 grants authority for spectrum management to the President for all federal use (47 USC 305). The National Telecommunications and Information Administration
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce that serves as the President's principal adviser on telecommunications policies pertaining to the United States' economic and technological advancement and to regulation of the...

 (NTIA) manages the spectrum for the Federal Government. Its rules are found in the NTIA Manual of Regulations and Procedures for Federal Radio Frequency Management
NTIA Manual of Regulations and Procedures for Federal Radio Frequency Management
The NTIA Manual of Regulations and Procedures for Federal Radio Frequency Management, also known as the Red Book, is a publication of the United States Office of Spectrum Management of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration or NTIA, and is the official source for all...

".

The Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

 (FCC) manages and regulates all domestic non-federal spectrum use (47 USC 301). Its rules can be found here: http://wireless.fcc.gov/index.htm?job=rules_and_regulations

Background:
  • Radio Act of 1927
  • Communications Act of 1934
    Communications Act of 1934
    The Communications Act of 1934 is a United States federal law, enacted as Public Law Number 416, Act of June 19, 1934, ch. 652, 48 Stat. 1064, by the 73rd Congress, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, codified as Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code, et seq. The Act replaced the...

  • Administrative Procedures Act of 1947
  • Communications Satellite Act of 1962
    Communications Satellite Act of 1962
    The Communications Satellite Act of 1962 was put into effect in order to deal with the issue of commercialization of space communications. This act was very controversial, and was left very open-ended. The act was signed August 31, 1962 by President John F...

  • National Telecommunications and Information Administration – 1978
    National Telecommunications and Information Administration – 1978
    The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is the US President's main adviser on telecommunications and information policy issues, and in this role frequently works with other Executive Branch and external agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission to develop...

  • Negotiated Rulemaking Act of 1990
  • Cable TV Consumer Protection & Competition Act of 1992
  • Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993
    Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993
    The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 was federal law that was enacted by the 103rd United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It has also been referred to, unofficially, as the Deficit Reduction Act of 1993...

  • Telecommunications Act of 1996
    Telecommunications Act of 1996
    The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first major overhaul of United States telecommunications law in nearly 62 years, amending the Communications Act of 1934. This Act, signed by President Bill Clinton, was a major stepping stone towards the future of telecommunications, since this was the...


International spectrum management

The International Telecommunication Union
International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union is the specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies...

 (ITU) is the part of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 (UN) that manages the use of both the RF Spectrum and space satellites among nation states. The Plenipotentiary Conference is the top policy-making body of the ITU, meeting every four years in order to set the Union's general policies. The ITU is divided into three Sectors: the Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) determines the technical characteristics and operational procedures for wireless services, and plays a vital role in the Spectrum Management of the radio-frequency; ITU-R Study Group 1 is the Spectrum Management study group; the Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) develops internationally-agreed technical and operating standards; and the Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D) fosters the expansion of telecommunications infrastructure in developing nations throughout the world, that make up two-thirds of the ITU’s 191 Member States. The ITU Radio Regulations set a binding international treaty governing the use of the radio spectrum by some 40 different services. Additional material, comparing international and regional frameworks for the RF Spectrum Management, is found at the recent PhD thesis

See also

  • Federal Communications Commission
    Federal Communications Commission
    The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

  • Frequency assignment
  • Military spectrum management
  • Broadcast license
    Broadcast license
    A broadcast license or broadcast license is a specific type of spectrum license that grants the licensee the privilege to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses are generally straddled with additional restrictions that...

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