U.K. telecom regulator Ofcom Friday said it would allow the use of white spaces devices (WSDs) to access the Internet, on a transitional basis, in bands other than the UHF TV band. Ofcom in February approved use of the devices in the TV white spaces. For the time being, Ofcom is allowing the use only of licensed, manually configurable devices. But Ofcom said it's reviewing other options and expects to issue revised rules by the end of 2018. “Ofcom has a duty to ensure that the radio spectrum is used in the most efficient way,” Ofcom said in its statement. “We have decided to authorise the deployment of WSDs on a license exempt basis where they meet certain technical and operational requirements to ensure there is a low probability of harmful interference to other spectrum users.”
The FCC July NPRM proposing changes to rules for its evaluation and approval of RF devices is raising concerns for some members of the public, concerned the new rules would limit their ability to modify devices they purchase. Initial comments on the NPRM are due Oct. 9, but dozens of short comments were posted in recent days in RM-11673. The FCC approved the NPRM July 17 and it was released four days later (see 1507210072). “Please do not prevent users from installing firmware on their own wireless devices,” wrote Hannah Howard of Los Angeles. “It's their right, and it benefits everyone, as users often patch security holes left open by the manufacturers.” John Chiasson of Pensacola, Florida, offered similar comments. “Wireless networking research depends on the ability of researchers to investigate and modify their devices,” he said. “Americans need the ability to fix security holes in their devices when the manufacturer chooses to not do so.” Trevor Best of Battle Ground, Washington, said the proposed rules would “so severely restrict user innovation and freedom as to stagnate creativity and new innovations that have often been driven by end users modifying open systems.”
Qualcomm has "a mountain of test results" to prove that LTE-U's carrier-sensing adaptive transmission coexistence (CSAT) mechanism ensures no adverse interference with Wi-Fi, said Dean Brenner, senior vice president-government affairs. His statement responded to a CableLabs blog post Tuesday in which it advocated for LTE-U to have a "listen before talk" (LBT) protocol (see 1509230078). While LBT is required in the 5 GHz band in Europe and Japan, elsewhere around the world "different technologies use different coexistence techniques in unlicensed spectrum," Brenner said. The maximum continuous transmission time for an LTE-U small cell, as spelled out in the LTE-U Forum specification, is 50 milliseconds, and the small cell will periodically rescan the spectrum looking for vacant or less-trafficked channels to transit on, he said. Meanwhile, he said, Wi-Fi access points "often do not share spectrum fairly with one another even though they use LBT for coexistence." Ultimately, Brenner said, "the real issue isn’t about LBT or CSAT [but] whether equipment will share the unlicensed spectrum fairly. And, the answer is clear from our testing: we have proven that LTE-U does share spectrum fairly and will not harm Wi-Fi. In addition, LTE-U Forum has defined a comprehensive and stringent Coexistence Spec to ensure all LTE-U equipment will coexist fairly with neighboring Wi-Fi or LTE-U nodes."
Even a small, 1 dB increase in a noise floor can affect GPS accuracy, integrity, availability and continuity "in unexpected or dramatic ways," Garmin said in an FCC ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 12-340. Garmin and LightSquared are at loggerheads over whether LightSquared's planned ground-and-satellite-based LTE broadband network could interfere with GPS signals in adjacent spectrum bands (see 1509090013). The filing summarized a meeting between Scott Burgett, Garmin's director-global navigation satellite system and software technology, and Philip Verveer, Chairman Tom Wheeler's senior counselor. Garmin said it remains focused on protecting global navigation satellite system applications from interference "while potentially exploring ways that currently underutilized spectrum in adjacent bands can be made more productive."
LTE-U must have a "listen before talk" (LBT) protocol to ensure no interference with Wi-Fi, the cable industry said in the form of a NCTA blog post Wednesday in response to a separate CableLabs blog post Tuesday. The way LTE-U currently is being configured lacks any requirement "to share fairly in time, to avoid interrupting Wi-Fi transmissions mid-stream, or to adapt to different levels of Wi-Fi usage and traffic," CableLabs said. "In the ‘off’ state, LTE-U may still send discovery signals that can also interfere with Wi-Fi. LTE-U 'listens and talks anyway' regardless of whether somebody else is talking or not." Meanwhile, the general consensus in the rest of the world is that LBT "is a fundamental coexistence requirement," CableLabs said, pointing to EU and Japanese regulations and 3GPP rejecting non-LBT approaches to the license assisted access standard. The LTE-U Forum should follow 3GPP, CableLabs said. NCTA echoed CableLabs as it said LTE-U "should follow the lead of international standards" and come up with sharing protocols and other fixes. Such politeness protocols "are not merely clever features -- they’re fundamental to fair coexistence in unlicensed bands," NCTA said. Wireless carriers and Wi-Fi advocates such as the cable industry have been sparring over concerns of LTE-U interference with Wi-Fi, with Qualcomm and Verizon last week demonstrating interoperability testing that showed the throughput of numerous Wi-Fi access points unaffected when an LTE-U access point was turned on (see 1509160039). In an email Wednesday, CTIA Chief Technology Officer Tom Sawanobori said CableLabs "did not actually conduct a test of LTE-U. As extensive testing has shown, LTE in the unlicensed band makes consumers’ wireless experience better. Given that 57 percent of current mobile traffic is offloaded on Wi-Fi networks today, wireless companies are invested in making LTE in the unlicensed band work for all users. We are confident policymakers will overlook the attempts by the cable companies to try to limit what they always supported, which is ‘permission-less innovation.'"
Verizon representatives stressed the importance of certainty to carriers during the incentive auction, in a meeting with Gary Epstein, chairman of the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force, and others at the agency. The Verizon officials also asked about the type of information the FCC will provide on impairments and how granular it will be, among other questions, a filing in docket 12-269 said. “We stressed the importance of providing forward auction bidders with file formats as soon as possible so that bidders can understand how the FCC plans to present data during the auction,” Verizon said. “We urged the FCC to conduct multiple simulations and mock auctions. Bidders should have the opportunity to become familiar with the FCC’s auction software so that they can effectively express demand through the variety of bid options available in the incentive auction.” Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said last week that the carrier is “likely” to bid in the auction, scheduled to start next year (see 1509170044).
NAB is right to question the FCC decision to place broadcasters in the duplex gap following the TV incentive auction, wireless mic company Sennheiser commented in docket 12-268, responding to NAB’s petition for reconsideration of auction procedures (see 1509110050). “Wireless microphones require clear, reliable channels in frequencies with good propagation characteristics (i.e. the TV bands and 600 MHz spectrum),” Sennheiser said. “Given the sensitivity of wireless microphone receivers and their real-time operational requirements, sharing spectrum with white space devices undermines the utility of spectrum for wireless microphone operations.” Some uses of the mics, including breaking news, film production, concerts and theater and “historic political and civic events” in particular, “require hyper-critical links for when there is no ‘second chance,’” the company said in a filing posted Monday.
Wireless Innovation Forum Spectrum Sharing Committee steering group members met with officials from the FCC Office of Engineering Technology and Wireless Bureau to discuss an update of the group’s activities, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-354. Questions raised at the meeting dealt with the FCC’s work on the 3.5 GHz shared spectrum band, the group said. Alcatel-Lucent, Federated Wireless, Google, Motorola Solutions, Nokia Networks, Qualcomm and Verizon were represented.
By relocating broadcasters into the duplex gap, the FCC is creating a situation where “serious problems are probable, not remote,” wireless mic company CP Communications said in comments posted Monday in docket 12-268 in response to the NAB’s petition for reconsideration of auction procedures (see 1509110050). Relocating TV stations in the duplex gap is inconsistent with prior FCC decisions and will leave the “key markets” where spectrum is most in demand without enough for wireless mics, the company said. There is only a finite amount of spectrum, CP said. “You cannot do something with nothing,” CP said. “You have to dance the rumba on a dance floor, not in a shower stall.”
The weapon of choice in fights over LTE-U/Wi-Fi interoperability is increasingly short cartoons of playground bullies. The cable industry, in its opposition to LTE-U, "is "acting like the bully who got to the playground first and now won't let the new kid play on the playground," Media Freedom said in a YouTube video posted Monday in which "Big Cable" is depicted as a unibrowed lunkhead who is shown the value of sharing. The cable industry's opposition to LTE-U is all about fear of competition from a better wireless service under the pretext of worries about Wi-Fi interference, Media Freedom said in a companion blog Monday. "Tests clearly show that LTE-U coexists and 'plays nicely' with Wi-Fi," said the free-market advocacy group in part funded by the communications industry. "The cable industry claims otherwise, and is using every excuse in the book to delay its implementation, going so far as to urge the FCC ‘to act’ and ensure the ‘right standards’ are in place, basically regulating unregulated unlicensed spectrum where innovation has flourished." The "bully" tag and playground setting are almost identical to language and imagery language the WifiForward coalition used in a video it put out earlier this month (see 1509090046) as it raised concerns about Wi-Fi interference from LTE-U.