FCC adopts Report and Order on Software-Defined and Cognitive Radios

The Federal Communications Commission has adopted a Report and Order  in the matter of software-defined radios and cognitive or "smart" radios, a proceeding it began in 2003.  I've quoted the Introduction in the post continuation area below.  Click here for the complete Word document. --Dennis

I.     Introduction

1. Advances in technology are creating the potential for radio systems to use radio spectrum more intensively and more efficiently than in the past. Perhaps none of these advances holds greater potential for literally transforming the use of spectrum in the years to come than the development of software-defined and cognitive, or “smart,” radios.  Regardless of the regulatory model – licensed, unlicensed, or other new models – these technologies are allowing and will increasingly allow more intensive access to, and use of, spectrum than possible with traditional, hardware-based radio systems. 

2. Software defined and relatively simple cognitive radio systems are already in use today. They include current cellular radio systems with capabilities such as transmit power control, handoff reconfiguration, and real time network control such as registration and control channel signaling. In addition, wireless local area networks are currently using adaptive techniques for channel identification, dynamic frequency selection, and adaptive modulation schemes for varying data throughput. The Commission has recognized cognitive capabilities in the rules as a means of allowing more efficient spectrum use.[1] Multiple organizations such as the Software Defined Radio Forum and the European Union are dealing with specific technical issues of importance to the deployment of software defined and cognitive radios. Numerous companies, often working with governmental agencies, are actively developing new products to take advantage of these capabilities. For example, one manufacturer has developed and obtained approval for a cellular base station that is designed to be remotely modified by software to enable operation with different modulation formats, thereby allowing a single base station to communicate with handsets employing different transmission formats.[2] We expect to see additional software-based products with new capabilities over the next few years. 

3. Some parties envision that the full development of cognitive radio capabilities will, or should, lead to a vastly different model for spectrum use. These “futurists” see “smart radios” operating on an opportunistic basis, finding idle spectrum, using it as they need, then vacating the band for others to use, all without human intervention.  This model presumes no need for spectrum policy, allocation tables, or regulatory bodies to manage spectrum resources. While we recognize that this model exists, we also believe that many technical, cost, and business issues will need to be addressed in the marketplace before widespread deployment of such radios may take place.  Therefore, we need not, and do not, address today the potential implications of such a radical paradigm shift. We do need to consider, however, whether the advent of these ongoing developments in software-defined and cognitive or smart radios require changes or clarifications in our current rules and procedures. We neither wish to have our processes inadvertently be a barrier to the development and deployment of these technologies nor wish to permit the widespread deployment of radios easily susceptible of being misused to cause harmful interference to others.

4. In this Report and Order, we thus continue the process of modifying our rules to reflect these ongoing technical developments in radio technologies. When the Commission first adopted rules for software defined radios, it recognized that manufacturers were beginning to use software to help determine the RF characteristics of radios, and that our equipment rules, which assumed hardware changes were needed to modify a radio’s behavior, held the potential of discouraging development of software defined radios by requiring repeated approvals for repeated software changes.[3] In light of the Commission’s experience with these rules, and the record in this proceeding, we are here modifying and clarifying our equipment rules to further facilitate the development and deployment of software defined and cognitive radios. Specifically, we are eliminating the rule that a manufacturer supply radio software (source code) to the Commission upon request because such software is generally not useful for certification review and may have become an unnecessary barrier to entry.[4] We are requiring that a manufacturer supply a high level operational description of the radio software that controls its RF characteristics for certification of a software defined radio. We are also clarifying our rules to permit manufacturers to market radios that have the hardware-based capability to transmit outside authorized

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frequency bands, but have software controls to limit operation to authorized frequency bands when used in the

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. In addition, we are modifying the rules to ensure that radios with software that is designed or expected to be modified by a party other than the manufacturer have reasonable security measures to prevent unauthorized modifications that would affect the RF operating parameters or the circumstances under which the transmitter operates in accordance with Commission rules.  Further, we describe the technical measures that cognitive radios could employ to allow secondary use of spectrum by lessees while maintaining the availability of the spectrum for a higher priority use by the licensee when needed. We conclude that such measures are, or will be, technically feasible, but see no need to adopt any particular technical model for interruptible spectrum use. These actions are taken to facilitate opportunities for flexible, efficient, and reliable spectrum use by radio equipment employing cognitive radio technologies and enable a full realization of their potential benefits.

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[1] See 47 C.F.R. §§ 15.323 and 15.407(h).

[2] See FCC Approves First Software Defined Radio, News Release dated

November 19, 2004

.

[3] See First Report and Order in ET Docket No. 00-47, 16 FCC

Rcd

17373

,

17377

(2001).

[4] We always retain the right to request and examine any component (whether software or hardware) of a specific radio system when needed for certification under Commission rules.