NEW YORK-By early fall, the Federal Communications Commission expects to issue rules governing software-defined radio, which industry participants believe will revolutionize wireless communications, Bryan Tramont said June 11 at the SDR Forum Conference.
“There is support for SDR within the FCC … Commissioner (Kathleen) Abernathy is intrigued by the efficiencies to be gained by its deployment,” he said.
“Ex parte rules allow in-person presentations outside rulemaking dockets. You can make your case in one-on-one meetings. Commissioner Abernathy would be thrilled to have that opportunity.”
Tramont, who is senior legal advisor to the newly appointed Abernathy, said the commission’s International, Wireless and Technology bureaus update him on issues. On the job for only a few weeks, Tramont said he has not yet seen a draft of the rules. However, he offered an outline of the federal agency’s philosophy and areas undergoing its examination.
“Universal deployment of software-defined radio is some way off in handsets, although it’s been in base stations for many years,” Tramont said. “The FCC is obliged to facilitate the deployment of new technologies, and we recognize the need to clear away as many regulatory hurdles as possible.”
Preventing spectrum interference and assuring handicapped accessibility are concerns of primary importance in accordance with its legislative mandate, he said.
“The FCC is the interference police. If I had a hog farm and could dump my waste on my neighbor’s property, I would. Interference is like that. There is always an incentive to externalize costs, although to the extent the neighbors have equal incentives, it could balance out,” Tramont said.
With regard to access for the disabled, the FCC also hopes to avoid with software-defined radio the kind of situation that occurred with the transition to digital cellular, which proved to be incompatible with hearing aids.
“There has not been as much regulatory focus on access for the disabled, but there will be more action … especially in the nascent stages of SDR, hopefully we can avoid retrofitting, as happened with other technologies in the past,” he said.
On the issue of security, Tramont said the FCC is disposed to take a deregulatory stance.
“Everyone has an incentive to make security work. Government intervention could freeze advancement or lock us into a single technology. But we will keep an eye on it and return to it if we have to,” he said.
The commission also is obliged to strike a delicate balance where the use of spectrum is concerned.
“The FCC used to be able, with impunity, to change people’s rights regarding spectrum use and sharing. One of the tensions is, over time, the FCC has moved to a more property driven model of spectrum, and that makes folks feel pretty protective of theirs,” Tramont commented.
“We still see that the advantages vastly outweigh the risk to property rights, but we will have to be more sensitive to property rights because of the extensive value associated with them.”
The FCC also is aware of the potential for software-defined radio to enhance the appeal of secondary markets to smaller operators. It would be more economical for such carriers to buy or lease spectrum from larger carriers that have decided not to build out coverage in such areas because SDR obviates the need for major modifications to handsets, he noted.
“We have predicted that, over time, the government won’t be the only supplier of spectrum. The issue for the FCC is that the statute requires us to approve any spectrum transfer that is a natural progression,” he said.
“The question is, at what point does a long-term, large-scale license lease begin to look a lot like a sale. The FCC is assessing where along the continuum regulatory licensing will be necessary.”
SDR will allow software downloads into handsets to keep them synchronized to networks undergoing transitions to new generations of wireless communications, said Mark Cummings, chief executive officer of enVia Inc., a Silicon Valley incubator for companies developing software-defined radio technologies.
Cummings, the principal inventor of the earliest patent for use of reconfigurable logic in SDR, said he believes software-defined radio will facilitate the shift to virtual private network operators. The first iteration was resale. The second is value-added resale of a single network. Ultimately, true VPNOs will market under their brands many heterogeneous networks, accessible by a single end-user wireless device taking advantage of the flexibility SDR affords.
“New York City has nine incompatible wireless standards. Europe and Japan, where they supposedly have a single standard, have five and six incompatible standards (respectively),” he said.
“People don’t want to carry many devices, but they want a lot of choices. … The customers of network operators will be service providers, and they will compete by offering combinations of modalities for different networks but with the same user interface.”
Software-defined radio also promises to put choice in the hands of network operators seeking plug-and-play upgrades to enhance capacity, transition to new technology, improve coverage, lower power requirements, accelerate data transmission speeds and use spectrum more efficiently.
“SDR will change the dominant design from hardware-centric to software-centric. It will ease the impact of multiple global standards on operators and equipment makers because all you need to do is send out new software and reboot the base station,” said Trinh Vu, director of product line management for AirNet Communications Corp., Melbourne, Fla.
