CENTENNIAL SECTION PROLOG
Prolog to the Section on Radio Spectrum Access BY A NDREAS W EISSHAAR , Fellow IEEE, AND A NDREW C LEGG , Senior Member IEEE
For more than a century, the radio spectrum, which for- coordinated at the international level through the Intermally corresponds to the frequency range below 3000 GHz national Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialized in the electromagnetic spectrum, has been a unique and United Nations agency. These bodies have the challenging valuable natural resource enabling a wide range of wireless task of managing the finite radio spectrum resources to applications and services. Radio and television broadcast- allow and oversee coexistence of the multitude of wireless ing are prevalent examples of one of the earliest and most systems operating in the private and public sectors, as enduring services using the radio spectrum. They un- diverse as terrestrial and satellite radio communication doubtedly have had an enormous impact on society for systems, navigation and tracking systems, radars, and radio many decades by providing instantaneous access to news astronomy telescopes. This section of the Centennial Special Issue covers the and entertainment to virtually every home. Especially within the past ten years, radio spectrum use three most relevant and interrelated topicsVspectrum has increased and expanded immensely beyond the tra- access technologies, spectrum policy, and the economics of ditional wireless systems, driven by the proliferation of radio spectrum accessVin separate articles authored by many new wireless applications and services spawned by renowned experts in their respective fields. Each of the enormous technological progress, particularly in digital three contributions provides a review of the key developdevices. The most prevalent examples include cell phones, ments over the past century and makes a visionary (and Global Positioning System (GPS), smart phones and perhaps provocative) prediction of future radio spectrum access. mobile broadband, WiFi, Bluetooth, The paper BSpectrum access satellite radio and TV, automotive technologies: The past, the present, radar, and radio-frequency identifiand the future,[ by Reed et al., reThis section on radio cation (RFID), to name just a few. views the key technological adWireless systems and services have spectrum access covers vances and regulatory decisions found pervasive use in our everyday the three most relevant over the past century that have lives and have become indispensible and interrelated helped to enhance the use of the contributors to global security and topicsVspectrum access radio spectrum, and offers thoughts economic growth. With further protechnologies, spectrum about Blessons learned.[ The paper liferation of wireless systems and the policy, and the economics continues to summarize the major emergence of many new wireless technologies being discussed in curapplications and services, the finite of radio spectrum rent research, development, and radio spectrum resources will be in accessVwith each article standardization efforts to address even greater demand. authored by experts in and improve spectrum efficiency. Radio spectrum access is genereach area. The article concludes by offering a ally regulated at the national level bold vision of future spectrum access through specific government agentechnologies that could greatly mitigate (and perhaps cies (e.g., Ofcom in the United Kingdom, ACMA in virtually banish) spectrum overcrowding and enable truly Australia, the FCC and NTIA in the United States, and seamless and ubiquitous wireless service. MIC in Japan), while shared global spectrum use is The paper BSpectrum policy for radio spectrum access,[ by Marcus, begins with a brief historic overview of radio regulation. The main part of the paper reviews the historical development of new radio spectrum access A. Weisshaar is with the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-5501 USA (e-mail: technologies and policies at both the national and
[email protected]). tional levels. In particular, the article describes the evoA. Clegg is with the National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA 22230 USA (e-mail:
[email protected]). lution of ITU regulations (or recommendations) for band Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/JPROC.2012.2187139 sharing at 5 GHz based on dynamic frequency selection 1674
Proceedings of the IEEE | Vol. 100, May 13th, 2012
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Prolog to the Section on Radio Spectrum Access
(DFS), implementation by national regulators in the United States and Europe, and operational experiences with cases of harmful interference to radars in the United States. The paper continues to discuss the regulatory issues of spectrum sharing of TV white space and describes the regulatory evolution and experiences in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan. The paper concludes with a review of ITU activities in radio spectrum access for software-defined radio and cognitive radio, a discussion of passive sensing versus cooperative spectrum sharing, and a vision of future cooperative spectrum sharing systems that actively engage and reward incumbent spectrum users.
The final paper, BThe economists’ contribution to radio spectrum access: The past, the present, and the future[ by Noam, gives a thought-provoking, historical review of the evolution of the economists’ views on radio spectrum access, from tight governmental control at the beginnings of commercial radio in the early 1920s to market segmentation, market-based licensing through public auctions, and unlicensed and free-spectrum access. The paper concludes with the prediction of the emergence of user-fee spectrum access systems that are based on emerging technologies including cognitive radio, spectrum sensing, and fast database and networking technologies, and which eliminate the need for frequency exclusivity. h
ABOUT THE AUTHORS Andreas Weisshaar (Fellow, IEEE) is a Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis. His research interests include integrated passive RF/microwave circuits and components, electronic packaging, and wireless communications. From April 2008 to August 2011 he served as Program Director for Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems at the U.S. National Science Foundation. He was a co-developer of the Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum (EARS) program at the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Andrew Clegg (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.A. degree in physics and astronomy with highest distinction from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, in 1985 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in radio astronomy (major) and electrical engineering (minor) from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, in 1989 and 1991, respectively. He is the creator and Program Director of the Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum (EARS) program at the U.S. National Science Foundation. He is also founder and publisher of the website SpectrumWiki.com, which provides a publicly-accessible wiki environment for collecting and organizing information on band-by-band uses of the radio spectrum. Dr. Clegg is a member of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), and he is active in several IEEE societies.
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