The 63rd meeting of the working group on Short Range Devices/Maintenance Group (SRD/MG) was held last 10-12 December in Mainz, Germany, chaired by Thomas Weber and attended by 42 delegates from various administrations, bodies (including the ECO European Communications Office) and industry.
SRD/MG handles issues associated to short range devices and among other matters is responsible for updating ERC/REC Recommendation 70-03, the response to the permanent mandate of the European Commission (EC) in short range devices with a view to updating the EC decision on low power short range devices (SRD), and issues associated to ultra wide band (UWB) technology and the identification of new spectrum opportunities for SRD introduction.
The ECO submitted the latest version of Recommendation 70-03, dated 7 February 2014, which reflects the implementation status of the various appendices/bands and the national limits (appendix 1) with reference to December 2014. Note that it has been published on the ECO website (www.cept.orghttps://www.cept.org/) and on the frequency information system (EFIS) portal at http://www.efis.dk/sitecontent.jsp?sitecontent=srd_regulationshttp://www.efis.dk/sitecontent.jsp?sitecontent=srd_regulations.
The 81st meeting of the working group on Frequency Management (WG FM), held in October 2014, approved for public consultation several documents proposed by SRD/MG. The respective comments were considered at this SRD/MG meeting, with the following highlights:
- Appendix 2 of Recommendation 70-03, whose proposal was to introduce an additional option (based on use of listen-before transmit/frequency adaptation mitigation techniques) for network relay points (NRPs) in the 870-875.6 MHz frequency band, as an alternative to the need for individual licensing. The public consultation received no comments;
- Revision of Decision ECC/DEC/(08)01 (5875-5925 MHz band) and Recommendation ECC/REC/(08)01 (5855-5875 MHz band), with a view to permitting the implementation of additional rules for intelligent transport system (ITS) stations in order to complement the existing regulation just for mobile stations. Specifically, it will henceforth include ITS stations in infrastructures and portable ITS stations. The comments received were all considered and resolved.
These documents will now be forwarded to the 82nd WG FM meeting (February 2015) for final approval and respective adoption. Also, at that meeting SRD/MG will propose that the following documents be approved for public consultation:
- Revision of appendix 2 of Recommendation 70-03, with a new regulatory solution for wireless industrial automation (WIA) applications in the 5.8 GHz (5725-5875 GHz) band;
- Revision of appendix 5 of Recommendation 70-03 in order to reduce the terminology used for radar systems in automobile vehicles;
- Revision of appendix 6 of Recommendation 70-03 to enhance the visibility of the regulatory solutions contained in Recommendation (11) 09 for UWB location-tracking 2 (LT2) applications and Recommendation (11) 10 for location-tracking application for emergency and disaster situations (LAES) applications;
- New proposed decision for the 440-446.2 MHz harmonised frequency band concerning analogue and digital professional mobile radio (PMR) 446 systems, including technical characteristics, individual license exemption and free circulation and use. The revocation of Decisions ECC/DEC/(98)25 and ECC/DEC/(05)12 is proposed with approval of this decision;
- Proposal to revise Recommendation (11) 09 for UWB LT2 applications, as it has not been implemented by most CEPT administrations, and to increase its degree of implementation, proposing a regulatory solution that is an alternative to the existing one, specifically via an individual licensing system (but without right to protection) for large size installations;
- Proposed ECC Report 230 which describes solutions concerning use of the 174-216 MHz band by assistive listening device (ALD) systems;
- Proposed revision of ECC Report 192 on “The Current Status of Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) in the 5 GHz Frequency Range” with inclusion of a nationwide solution applied by the Czech Republic to deal with interference in meteorological radar caused by wireless local area network (WLAN/RLAN) equipment operating in 5 GHz.
Regarding the permanent mandate of the European Commission (EC) in SRD, at the last meeting the group began the work leading to the sixth update of the Commission’s SRD Decision. As usual, a CEPT report will be developed in response to the mandate. Work items already identified by the group include: i) evaluation of the possibility of inserting the medical body area network system (MBANS); and ii) the 870-876 MHz/915-921 MHz bands in the EC’s SRD Decision. At this meeting a questionnaire to investigate cognitive terms was completed; it should be approved at the next meeting of WG FM.
Also finalised was a CEPT contribution with the response to a questionnaire from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on the classification of SRD applications.
