High-tech companies proposed a mitigation strategy to address concerns about interference in the 6 GHz band to protect incumbents while opened for unlicensed use. “We propose that the Commission adopt a robust framework for preventing harmful interference to FS [fixed service] incumbents,” the companies said in docket 17-183. The framework should include “comprehensive ex ante interference protection through an automated frequency coordination process” and a “remediation tool to assure incumbents that, in the highly unlikely event that they experience harmful interference from a 6 GHz … device despite automated frequency coordination, the interference can be stopped and prevented from recurring.” The framework will protect fixed satellite service operators through antenna pointing rules, the companies said. Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Ruckus Networks signed. “Our companies’ understanding of the dynamics present in the 6 GHz band has benefited greatly from this record, and from our exchanges directly with incumbents,” they said. “We appreciate their good faith efforts to work collectively to find a way to improve broadband access for more Americans while avoiding harmful interference.” Meanwhile, Verizon reported meeting Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff where it “reiterated its conditional support for unlicensed use of the 5.925-6.425 GHz band, as long as the Commission adopts rules that protect the tens of thousands of existing microwave links and future microwave deployments in the band.”
Microsoft responded to NAB’s complaint about the tech company's recent filing on TV white spaces (see 1806110027) that it agrees "this is a challenging issue to resolve and recognize[s] that the FCC has been looking into it since 2014. ... We look forward to working with the FCC, NAB, and others on a technical solution that will meet the needs of all parties.”
NAB officials slammed a proposal by Microsoft asking that only TV white spaces (TVWS) devices operating on one or two designated “fast-polling” channels be required to query a white spaces database every 20 minutes to find out if these channels were still available. The company is seeking rules that would allow launching rural broadband using TVWS spectrum (see 1707100042). “This proposal assumes that TVWS devices will seldom operate on fast-polling channels because checking the database every 20 minutes would be disastrous for battery life of TVWS devices -- particularly portable devices,” NAB said Monday in docket 16-56. "The proposal is to establish fast polling channels that TVWS devices will then seek to avoid using.” NAB met with Chief Julius Knapp and others from the Office of Engineering and Technology. Meanwhile, OET approved an application by Nominet UK to be an administrator for the TV white spaces database. The company sought certification in November and OET sought comment in April (see 1804090043). The company told the FCC it has extensive TV white spaces experience in the U.K. It's "shown that it has the technical expertise to develop and operate a white space database,” OET said. Microsoft didn't comment.
Unlicensed use in the 6 GHz band will clearly cause "pervasive and consistent" -- not rare -- interference to the 95,000 licensed fixed service links in the band, the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition said in a filing to be posted in docket 17-183. It responded to arguments by tech companies seeking unlicensed use of the band that there won't be harmful interference (see 1805140049). FWCC said the level of interference the tech companies concede to "would decimate FS reliability," but the actual interference "would be orders of magnitude worse." It said most of the mitigation measures the tech companies propose wouldn't protect 6 GHz FS. The group said the "extraordinarily high reliability" required of FS operations means even a brief interference even to a sole receiver could disable numerous links for several minutes while it resynchronizes. Outside counsel for the tech companies didn't comment.
Fifty-seven Oregon state legislators urged the FCC and Chairman Ajit Pai to reserve the TV white spaces for unlicensed use to promote rural broadband, in a letter Wednesday addressed to “Commissioner Pai.” Reserving the TVWS "will let the private sector and companies like Microsoft work on implementing new technologies that have the ability to bring reliable and affordable broadband into rural communities,” the letter said. “The digital divide continues to exist in Oregon and may well be contributing to the economic divide that also exists between urban and rural areas of the state,” the letter said. “It is economically and educationally imperative that you act on behalf of those thousands of Oregonians and those millions of Americans who deserve access to the same opportunity that broadband affords.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology, “on their own motion,” Tuesday provided a conditional waiver of rules for spectrum access system administrators in the nascent 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. SASs could authorize only lower-power (Category A) devices to operate in the band outside of exclusion zones and couldn’t authorize the use of any higher-power (Category B) devices before certification and deployment of environmental sensing capability (ESC) operators. The FCC side-stepped this requirement, letting SASs use an alternative protection methodology based on dynamic protection areas (DPAs). Every SAS will have to decide whether it will take advantage of the rule change, the FCC said. “Prior to the deployment of an ESC, a DPA-enabled SAS may authorize both Category A and Category B [devices] and will not be required to enforce Exclusion Zones in areas protected by DPAs,” the order said. “Prior to the deployment of an ESC, non-DPA-enabled SASs may only authorize Category A CBSDs outside of Exclusion Zones, consistent with the current rules.” The FCC said the revised rules will permit operators in the band to “operate both Category A and Category B [devices] in a larger portion of the country more quickly than anticipated and thereby will promote efficient spectrum use and rapid commercial deployment in the band, encourage investment, and facilitate the expeditious provision of new products and services to the public while still protecting federal operations.”
Microsoft representatives urged the FCC to address reconsideration petitions on the TV white spaces rules, meeting last week with Chief Julius Knapp and others from the Office of Engineering and Technology. “The Commission should affirm its rules on channel 37 and replace its current database ‘push’ notification rule with a rule establishing a fast-polling channel,” said a filing Monday in docket 16-56. “Microsoft’s White Spaces experimental licenses point the way to effective use of the band to serve rural communities.” The company is using white spaces to provide connectivity for school buses along a rural route in Michigan (see 1804020040).
Ericsson, Qualcomm Technologies and Russian provider MTS said they jointly deployed licensed assisted access technology in Ufa City, Russia. “LAA is an important technology in the LTE network evolution to 5G, providing access to new unlicensed frequencies,” Ericsson said. “With this milestone, MTS has surpassed its previous 700 Mbps speed record, enabling the service provider to take the next step in turning its mobile infrastructure into gigabit-capable.” Ericsson is upgrading MTS’ network for 5G and the growing IoT. "Delivering Gigabit LTE speeds, this is the first commercial LAA rollout in the region and is part of the agreement entered by MTS and Ericsson in 2017 to upgrade the MTS network with Ericsson Radio System and core network solutions," Ericsson said.
A group of companies pursuing unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band filed a letter at the FCC in support of a report by RKF Engineering Solutions the companies say shows the band can be opened without harmful interference to incumbents (see 1801260043). “By demonstrating that potential interference between RLAN [radio local area network] devices and FS [fixed service] is confined to only specific, rare situations, and ruling out the possibility of widespread aggregate interference to FS, the RKF Study has narrowed the appropriate technical discussion to two discrete issues,” said Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Ruckus Networks. “Under what circumstances will RLAN operation within the main beam of an FS link pose a substantial risk of harmful interference?” and “What are the most appropriate mitigation measures to effectively address that risk?” the filing said. The answer to the first concern is “RKF demonstrated that even in the case of main-beam RLAN operations, RLAN devices are very unlikely to cause harmful interference to FS by materially degrading overall link reliability,” the tech companies said. On the second, “the undersigned companies have provided a framework for interference-protection rules that would segment the 6 GHz band and would allow the FCC to apply specific mitigation measures tailored to each sub-band,” said the filing, posted Monday in docket 17-183.
Six conditionally OK'd spectrum access system administrators seek, "as expeditiously as possible, commercial SAS service" under FCC SAS certification, they told DOD, FCC Wireless Bureau and NTIA staff, one of the companies, Google, reported in a filing posted in commission docket 15-319 Friday. Others represented in the "preliminary discussion regarding SAS field testing" methods were Amdocs, CommScope, Federated Wireless, Key Bridge and Sony.