Available on Demand
As wireless communications have become ever more important, access to wireless spectrum has become increasingly difficult. The so-called “spectrum crunch” describes a situation in which there is not enough spectrum available to support all of the networks and devices desired. As a result, a critical capability of wireless devices is the ability to share the spectrum they use with other devices, be they communications devices or not. For example, one class of critical spectrum user is the radar system for weather forecasting, navigation, and defense.
This ability to share spectrum with other users has both regulatory and non-regulatory aspects. From a regulatory perspective, there are rules designating how a wireless system needs to behave in order to protect critical operations, or fairly share the spectrum with other users. Beyond regulation, however, there is freedom of operation, and some devices will make better choices in the presence of wireless interference than will others. Network operators need a way to test the performance of devices in the presence of interference, both to understand their ability to support regulatory requirements, and to understand what kinds of choices they are designed to make.
We will provide an overview of the spectrum sharing landscape, including DFS/radar requirements, new regulatory regimes such as CBRS in the US, and industry-driven activities such as the cellular/Wi-Fi co-existence test plan for LTE-U. In addition, we will discuss how devices that operate under these various conditions can be tested to understand their performance.
