WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week allocated 75 megahertz of spectrum for smart highway technologies, such as automated toll booths, monitoring traffic jams, travelers’ alerts, and enabling traffic signals to be altered remotely to aid ambulance drivers.
The agency expects to rule on licensing procedures for the new spectrum early next year, said Julius Knapp, deputy director of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology.
Smart highways technologies will employ dedicated short-range wireless links to transfer information between vehicles and roadside systems. The technologies are being developed by private industry with input from the Department of Transportation.
One goal of ITS would allow transportation officials to communicate with drivers in much the same way air traffic controllers communicate with pilots. “We do not a have a good ability to communicate with the driver in the `cockpit’ of his car,” said Christine M. Johnson, program manager and operations director of the ITS joint program office at DoT.
Auto makers would have to install equipment in vehicles to facilitate that communication, Johnson said.
The FCC said 75 megahertz of spectrum, located above 5 GHz, should allow ITS technologies to be developed nationwide, although the technology will share spectrum with amateur radio operators and government radar systems.
