Frequency Management working group meeting - Cascais

The Frequency Management working group (WG FM) held its 65th meeting last 9-13 February in Cascais, Portugal, where a new project team, PT FM 47 (project team Frequency Management 47), was set up to cover issues involving UWB (ultra wide band) technology. The first meeting of PT FM 47 was held on 26-27 March in Copenhagen, chaired by Emmanuel Faussurier. This project team is in charge of responding to the second European Commission (EC) mandate on SRR (short range radars) and the fourth EC mandate on UWB technology based radio applications.

The working group on Regulatory Affairs (WG RA) produced ECC Report 125 on ''Guidelines for the Implementation of Impact Assessment (IA) in Relation to Spectrum Matters'', approved by the ECC in September 2008 and comprising seven phases. PT FM 47 began an analysis of IA in SRR, basically discussing the first three phases, so as to respond to Part 2 of the second EC mandate on SRR, which proposes the study of alternative SRR bands, namely in 26 GHz.

Regarding specific new UWB applications, the group considered and debated the following contributions from the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI):

• SRDoc draft ETSI TR 102 496, for LAES (Location Tracking Application form emergency services) systems operating in the 3.4-3.8 GHz band;
  
  
• SRDoc draft ETSI TR 102 495-5, for Location Tracking Applications Type 2 systems operating in the 3.4-3.8 GHz and 6-8.5 GHz bands;
  
  
• SRDoc draft ETSI TR 102 495-7, for Location Tracking and Sensor Applications for Automotive and Transportation Environments systems operating in the 3.1-4.8 GHz and 6-8.5 GHz bands;
  
  
• SRDoc draft ETSI TR 102 834, which contains technical characteristics for UWB applications to operate on board aircraft in the 3.1-4.8 GHz and 6-8.5 GHz bands.

Given that industry is constantly appearing with new requests for specific UWB applications that are not framed within the regulatory solutions developed by CEPT, PT FM 47 is also responsible for working out a criterion and comprehensive approach for handling new industry requests for specific UWB devices.

Also produced was the response to the fourth EC mandate on UWB designated as Report B, which should include the additional work done at CEPT level in specific UWB applications (specifically the revision of Decision ECC/DEC/(07)01), as well as the criterion and comprehensive approach of CEPT for handling new industry requests for specific UWB devices.