WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week did its part to improve the nation’s roads by proposing that 75 megahertz be set aside for so-called smart highway technologies such as automated toll booths and traffic jam monitoring.
The action at last Thursday’s public meeting followed by two days President Clinton’s signature on legislation that requires the FCC to make a final decision on spectrum allocations for smart highways before the turn of the next century.
The smart highway technologies will employ dedicated short range wireless links to transfer information between vehicles and roadside systems. The technologies are being developed by the intelligent transportation industry with input from the Department of Transportation.
The proposal calls for the technologies to be co-primary users on spectrum in the 5.850-5.925 GHz band currently occupied by national weather radar systems and fixed satellite services. FCC Commissioner Susan Ness urged the staff of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology to ensure the incumbents in the spectrum band will not experience interference when the proposed smart highway technologies come online.
Amateur radio operators are classified as secondary users in this band but OET believes ham radio operators can use engineering techniques to reduce interference, said Julius Knapp, chief of the policy and rules division for OET. During the past few weeks, the FCC has been flooded with comments from amateur radio operators protesting a plan by the Land Mobile Communications Council for a spectrum allocation from a different block of spectrum where hams are secondary users. “We are going to be sensitive to the [concerns] of the ham radio operators,” Knapp said.
Although Congress told the FCC to initiate a rule making on a smart highways spectrum allocation, the FCC was in reality responding to a petition filed last year by the Intelligent Transportation Society (ITS) of America. Indeed, Knapp said the ITS petition had “merit on its own” and that the FCC would have acted on it even without the congressional nudging. Additionally, the Transportation Department has conducted a variety of studies and has a vision of how this spectrum can be used effectively and efficiently, he said.
