EU Approach to 870-875.6 MHz Spectrum Called Boost for Machine-to-Machine Network Deployment
European regulators have paved the way for commercial development of short range devices (SRDs). In a report on future spectrum demand for SRDs in the UHF bands, and a recommendation on the use of SRD, both made public Feb. 14, the Conference of European Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) set out a common spectrum allocation approach and regulatory parameters for the 870-875.6 MHz and 915-921 MHz bands. CEPT’s actions got praise from U.S.-based Silver Spring Networks, which said more standardized cross-border spectrum treatment will ensure buildout of large machine-to-machine (M2M) networks across Europe. Meanwhile, consultants for the company urged the U.K. Office of Communications (Ofcom) to make the two bands available for SRDs as quickly as possible.
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CEPT’s Electronic Communications Committee (ECC) examined the possibility of using 870-876 MHz and 915-921 MHz spectrum for SRDs at the request of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, ECC said in its report (189) on future spectrum demand for SRDs in UHF spectrum (http://xrl.us/bqmgo5). Among nine spectrum demands considered, the report looked at metropolitan mesh machine networks. CEPT proposed a regulatory regime of license exemption for SRDs, with the exception of metropolitan infrastructure networks operating above a duty cycle of 2.5 percent, which would need some form of coordination to operate in the 870-876 MHz band. The report recommended that network relay points (NRPs) of metropolitan infrastructure networks be subject to individual authorizations. It also said regulations in member countries may differ.
In an amended recommendation (70-03) relating to the use of SRDs (http://xrl.us/bqmgpf), CEPT set out its general position on regulatory parameters for spectrum allocations for SRDs. It defined SRDs to cover “radio transmitters which provide either uni-directional or bi-directional communication which have low capability of causing interference to other radio equipment.”
CEPT’s designation of additional license-exempt spectrum for M2M “is the first step in the release of spectrum for broad commercial use across Europe,” Silver Spring said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1p2MiJ9). Many CEPT countries can now start allocating spectrum for use, it said. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth came about because the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands were made license-exempt, said James Pace, the company’s managing director-Europeans markets. In the same way “we believe the release of license exempt sub-GHz spectrum will unlock billions of Euros in value for the widespread deployment of many M2M solutions, whose business cases are often broken when licensed spectrum technologies are the only option,” he said.
An Ofcom consultation on technical proposals for license-exempt SRDs in the 870-876 MHz and 915-921 MHz bands (http://xrl.us/bqm9un) ended Feb. 19. In their response on behalf of Silver Spring Networks (UK) Ltd., SCF Associates Director Simon Forge and Open Spectrum Foundation Director Robert Horvitz said the regulator should enable license-exempt uses of SRDs in the 870-876 MHz and 915-921 MHz band as soon as possible. Although filed for Silver Spring Networks, the comments were “exactly consistent with our personal policy positions, anyway,” Horvitz told us.
There’s strong demand for spectrum for SRDs, the SCF Associates response to Ofcom said. Using a short signal range reduces risk of interference, making it possible to eliminate license requirements while allowing frequency to be reused by a large number of devices. More devices means economies of scale, making communications technology affordable, it said. Creativity is released when designers and entrepreneurs are free to develop applications not predefined by regulators, it said.
Allocating spectrum to specific and non-specific SRDs for a range of uses is likely to be most advantageous, the SCF Associates submission said. Among other uses, unlicensed spectrum “can trigger the next major advance for networking globally” via M2M communications, supporting innovation in applications from wireless sensor networks to taming forest fires to pacemaker monitors that relay vital heart signs, it said. “By 2020, the economic potential of M2M and the Internet of Things (IoT) could generate benefits of more than $1.4 trillion per year globally as the number of devices connected reaches 100 billion.” That’s an economic contribution five times larger than today’s Internet, it said. And because unlicensed technologies are cost-effective, power-efficient and robust, they are likely to provide more than 95 percent of IoT connections, it said.
A year ago the question was whether Ofcom should authorize license-exempt use of 870-876 MHz and 915-921 MHz, Forge and Horvitz wrote. Now the issue is whether the diverse applications possible in the bands can coexist, they said. That question is made challenging because of the different bandwidths, power levels and duty cycles needed for each application; the way each family of devices deals with interference; and the presence of licensed activities in the bands.
CEPT’s debate on coexistence issues finally produced the documents on SRDs, the consultation response said. The documents contain viable solutions to the various contention problems, but Ofcom’s proposals for the bands differ from CEPT’s recommendation on NRPs, it said. Ofcom appears to want to deny higher duty cycle NRPs authorization, but “at no point does CEPT conclude that the risk of interference from high duty cycle NRPs into other users of the 870 to 876 MHz and 915 to 921 MHz bands is so great they should be denied use of these bands.” Ofcom shouldn’t deny authorization to NRPs, the response said.