Tech companies urged the FCC to act on an order allowing client-to-client operations in the 6 GHz band, the subject of a January notice (see 2101110031), in a call with Office of Engineering and Technology staff. Apple, Broadcom, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft and Qualcomm participated. The companies discussed “how client-to-client operations can enable important new use cases, subject to strict limits to protect incumbents from harmful interference,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-295. “When client devices are near one another it’s more spectrally efficient for them to transfer data directly using lower transmit power levels,” they said: “Using lower transmit power conserves power and precious battery resources.”
Qualcomm representatives told FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff that the entire 600 MHz-wide lower 37 GHz band can safely be shared by licensed users. Under Qualcomm’s proposal, priority users would be licensed to use a 100 or 200 MHz channel “in a given area on which they have primary rights, and each priority licensee would have secondary rights to the other channels,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 14-177. Simulations “demonstrate that fully overlapping licenses in both frequency and location can perform very well in an extremely high density node deployment scenario,” Qualcomm said: “This unsurprising result is due to the highly directional nature of millimeter wave communications.”
Parties disagreed on terrain-based models, such as the Longley-Rice irregular terrain model (ITM), to determine available TV channels for white space devices, in replies on an October Further NPRM (see 2010290051), due Monday in FCC docket 20-36. The Wireless ISP Association sought the change. “By now, the Commission should feel confident that it can permit white space database administrators to utilize the point-to-point Longley-Rice irregular terrain model for determining white space channel availability for fixed white space devices without increasing the risk to incumbent operations,” Microsoft said. NAB still disagrees (see 2103290052). Don’t “adopt additional changes that threaten television reception, particularly considering this unlicensed technology has produced few tangible results in the thirteen years since the Commission first authorized [white spaces] operations,” NAB said. BitPath agreed further revisions are “wholly inappropriate” now. The FCC just made “sweeping changes” to the rules, including a 60% increase in power levels and a doubling of antenna height for some fixed devices, “as well as substantial power increases for mobile devices, and authorized a new class of narrowband IoT” devices, BitPath said: “Making further changes to the … rules without the benefit of knowing the real world impact of the recent changes would be imprudent.” But NAB’s initial comments “overstate the potential for harmful interference to protected TV broadcast stations, understate the public interest benefits of using the ITM, and are outweighed by the record,” WISPA said: “The Commission should require the TV white space administrator to add the ITM as an option for TV white space users following Commission testing to confirm the ability of the database to implement the ITM without causing harmful interference to protected TV station facilities.”
Microsoft is pleased the FCC’s draft proposal on wireless mics “takes into account the potential impact on white space devices,” company representatives told an aide to acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “Microsoft reviewed a series of wireless microphone proceedings and noted its view that for technical reasons, the Part 74 wireless microphone industry seems to care most about the UHF band operations rather than the bands authorized above and below,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 21-115. Commissioners are to vote next week on the wireless mics NPRM (see 2104010056).
NAB and Red Technologies opposed terrain-based models, such as the Longley-Rice irregular terrain model, to determine available TV channels for white space devices. Comments were due Friday in FCC docket 20-36 on an October Further NPRM (see 2010290051). “Such a model would lead to harmful interference to television service in pursuit of marginal, and likely illusory gains in spectrum efficiency,” NAB said. “Based on our experience implementing terrain-based propagation models onto commercial-grade spectrum access system,” it “requires significantly more processing power” than the current database, plus “higher end infrastructure,” said engineering consultant Red. The Wireless ISP Association, which had sought the change, disagreed with broadcasters. “Incumbent protection of TV stations is presently based on simplistic models that take into account only distance to a contour, ignoring terrain as a factor, and using only a single height above average terrain value computed on the basis of points 3 to 16 km from the transmitter,” WISPA said: “The Longley-Rice model is a widely accepted and understood method of estimating path loss on VHF through microwave frequencies that takes terrain into account while calculating several modes of propagation.”
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technologyextended through Sept. 30 a waiver of the push notification requirement for fixed and mode II personal/portable TV white space devices, set to expire March 31. The original waiver was approved in a 2015 order on Part 15 rules.
Proponents urged the FCC to allow client-to-client operations in the 6 GHz band, and incumbents opposed the C2C change, in replies posted Wednesday in docket 18-295. This was consistent with initial comments (see 2102230056). “The record in this proceeding supports the need to make the band even more useful by facilitating the applications that client-to-client communications will support,” said the Wi-Fi Alliance. Many opponents seek "to re-litigate the Commission’s sound decision to permit unlicensed device access to the 6 GHz band,” the alliance said. C2C will become the standard worldwide, said Apple, Broadcom, Commscope, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Microsoft and Qualcomm. “Peer-to-peer use cases like those that would be facilitated … are standard in other bands for many consumer electronic devices in the United States,” the companies said: “They include onboarding smart home equipment using smartphones, sharing streaming video from one device to another, and sharing files among users or devices quickly and efficiently.” Low-power indoor C2C would “improve the performance of current" uses and enable new ones, the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance said. Comments “overwhelmingly oppose allowing client-to-client communications, and the proponents have failed to provide sufficient technical information to show that such operations would not cause harmful interference to licensed microwave systems,” said utility and public safety groups, led by APCO, the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, Edison Electric Institute and Utilities Technology Council. C2C would “significantly increase the interference potential to licensed microwave systems,” they said. CTIA urged caution, noting that, working with Southern Co., it did some of the only 6 GHz interference testing. Results “provide prima facie evidence that even devices operating in compliance with the existing rules will cause harmful interference to incumbent users,” the group said. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation said the proposal poses a risk to vehicle-to-everything uses of the band and could also affect the 5.9 GHz band.
The FCC OK'd priority access licenses for 222 of the 255 bidders in the citizens broadband radio service auction. The approved long-form applications cover 17,450 licenses, the FCC said Friday. The auction ended in August with total bids of $4.59 billion (see 2008260055). Verizon and major cable operators dominated, and Dish Network came in big (see 2009020057). Long-form applications were due Sept. 17. “Five years ago, this agency recognized that our traditional spectrum auctions needed an update -- and that the 3.5 GHz band was the perfect place to start,” said acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel: “We continue to make progress in implementing the 3.5 GHz band concept and further demonstrate US leadership in spectrum innovation.”
Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Intel and Qualcomm proposed an FCC “compromise” for very-low-power portable operations throughout the 6 GHz band. They proposed that devices must meet an out-of-band emissions level of -37 dBm/MHz, measured by root mean square at 5925 MHz and prioritize operations in channels above 6105 MHz, said their filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-183.
RS Access' preliminary analysis shows spectrum sharing in the 12 GHz band is feasible. Even if it isn't, SpaceX and other aspiring non-geostationary orbit service providers "have a wealth of other frequencies available to them," RS Access CEO Noah Campbell told an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, per an International Bureau posting Friday. Urging opening the band to terrestrial 5G operations, Campbell said NGSO operators need to accommodate spectrum allocation regimes worldwide that don't include fixed satellite service rights to the band, and some proposed constellations like Amazon's Kuiper don't plan to use the band in the U.S. He said 5G broadband in the 12 GHz band "is not an either-or decision" among terrestrial, direct broadcast satellite and NGSO licensees.