Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Panel: 4.9 GHz band promising, challenging

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 21:20:46 -0500

Panel: 4.9 GHz band promising, challenging

By Donny Jackson

IWCE/MRT

March 30, 2004 

Proper engineering standards and area coordination are 
needed to make 4.9 GHz spectrum dedicated to public 
safety beneficial to first responders wanting high-speed 
data access at affordable prices, according to a panel 
convened at last week's IWCE 2004 in Las Vegas. 

Currently, the Federal Communications Commission is 
considering engineering standards for the emission mask. 
Public-safety leaders are hopeful the standards are 
aligned with the standards for the 500 MHz of 5 GHz 
unlicensed airwaves available to all consumers, because 
this would let them leverage equipment advances in 
affordable 802.11a and 802.11j technologies.

“Failure to do that could create a niche market and 
correspondingly high equipment prices,” said Sean O’Hara, 
communications system manager for Syracuse Research 
and a member of the National Public Safety Telecommunications 
Council’s software-defined radio work group.

Such a scenario also could mean that the 4.9 GHz spectrum 
largely would not be used, according to attendee John Powell, 
a public-safety communications consultant and past president 
of APCO.

“It makes the difference between a $100 device and a $1000 
device,” Powell said after the panel discussion. “[If public safety 
can’t use consumer-like equipment at 4.9 GHz], we won’t have 
to worry about interference at 4.9 GHz, because no one will use it.”

O’Hara said he has a “good feeling” that the matter will be 
resolved in a way that allows public safety to use the same 
equipment at 4.9 GHz that will be developed in the adjacent 
5 GHz band. If this occurs, public-safety communications 
leaders will have unprecedented options to upgrade their 
data systems, according to Salvatore DiRaimo, principal 
engineer for New York State Technology Enterprise Corporation.

“We don’t have to wait 10 years [to afford new technology]; 
we can adapt in two to three years,” DiRaimo said.

One of the challenges associated with the 4.9 GHz band is 
that it can be used by all licensed public-safety entities in a 
region, which means there are possibilities for interference 
if the groups don’t work together, said Steve Devine, patrol 
frequency coordinator for the Missouri State Highway Patrol. 
But a coordinated effort - as well as the ability to use the 
5 GHz spectrum during high-traffic periods - should provide 
the kind of performance that will be a boon to public safety, 
he said.

“The level of throughput achieved is based on the level of 
cooperation,” Devine said. “It’s the sand-box theory.”

http://iwce-mrt.com/ar/radio_panel_ghz_band/index.htm

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