Search results

This paper aims to compare the costs of deploying different wireless terrestrial broadband technologies in the Andes and Amazon Regions of Peru. These areas are representatives of different and challenging geographic regions throughout the globe that currently are severely underserved or unserved for vital broadband services necessary to bridge the “Digital Divide”.

The broadband technologies studied include Wi-Fi, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), long term evolution (LTE), TVWS and new stratospheric platforms (super-pressure balloons). This study conducts a technical analysis (design and simulation) of wireless broadband networks, and a bottom-up engineering cost analysis to estimate and compare the deployment and operating costs of the networks over a 10-year period. The analysis also identifies potential regulatory barriers to deployment associated with spectrum allocation licenses and overbooking requirements intended to improve quality of service.

Comparison of the capital and operating expenses of these options over a 10-year period finds that LTE and Wi-Fi can be the lowest cost alternatives, though significantly, stratospheric balloons have the lowest initial costs for the first few years and can factor as a low-cost broadband catalyst early in deployment. Finally, the lowest cost technology broadband roadmap for the 10-year period is presented, which includes using stratospheric balloons (carrying micro-LTE base stations) for the first years and deploying complementary terrestrial LTE networks for the rest of the 10-year period.

This study presents detailed technical and engineering cost analysis results of wireless access network deployments, including advanced wireless technologies and new unmanned aerial systems, to expand broadband services to rural areas in mountainous (Andes Region) and rainforest (Amazon Region) geographies to reduce the digital divide in emerging countries. Results aim to aid governments, regulators, internet service providers (incumbents and competitive) and content providers to assess current alternatives to expand broadband service in these rural areas.

COVID-19 has influenced the way we utilise the radio spectrum in terms of increasing data rates, the localisation of usage, and the transfer of traffic from urban to rural areas. Most regulators have shown sympathy towards operator requirements, stipulating a range of mitigation actions including allowing technology neutrality and temporary assignments. Internationally, the ITU-R suspended all physical meetings and launched a new global network resiliency platform named ‘REG4COVID’ to share experiences including those related to spectrum management.

It is argued in this chapter that the pandemic has supported the calls for additional unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz and accelerated the rollout of 5G. Moreover, despite of increasing use of streaming, it is quite difficult to assume that traditional linear TV will be replaced, at least in the near future for a variety of reasons. The pandemic has also raised the question as to whether an innovative assignment model could be used to assign the spectrum instead of auctions, and whether, in some countries where temporary assignments were made, frequencies are kept unutilised or reserved. Concerning international spectrum management, it is expected that WRC-23 will be held on time though there will be some implications for issues such as the regulatory time-limits for bringing into use satellite networks frequency assignments. Finally, it is argued that the pandemic has also demonstrated the importance of flexibility and agility in national spectrum management, and placed spectrum managers in a new position where they were forced to be proactive instead of their traditional reactive role.

The purpose of the paper is to assess whether the dysfunctional structure of the Indian mobile communications sector has been improved by a large number of spectrum auctions during the period 2010-2016.

This paper provides a case study of developments in the Indian mobile communications sector primarily during the period 2010-2016. This period has witnessed a large number of spectrum auctions, the results of which are presented and analysed. The particular focus is upon the consequences of these auctions for the structure of the sector which began the period in what can best be described as a dysfunctional state.

The paper concludes that only limited progress has so far been made in improving the structure of the sector. This is due to factors such as political interference, delays in completing merger & acquisition (M&A) activity, badly organised auctions, a scarcity of the right amount of spectrum in the right places and a regional structure that inhibits operators from providing a nationwide presence.

The paper concludes that considerable progress still needs to be made: For example, political interference needs to be harmonised, auction prices need to become market-clearing and M&A activity needs to come to fruition.

The existing analysis of the sector has paid only limited attention to the significance of auctions for the structure of the sector, and this paper provides an analysis of all auctions and M&A activity virtually to the end of 2016, making it unusually up-to-date.

Spectrum regulations have major impact on the development and deployment of innovative technologies. Current regulations for license-exempt radio spectrum generally are given in terms of technology-related criteria. This paper aims to propose a set of metrics that can be used to define technology-agnostic spectrum regulations which encourage rather than restrict technology innovation.

This paper builds on and expands two other papers on regulatory criteria for license-exempt spectrum which define metrics for spectrum loading and spectrum sharing efficiency. Here, we add metrics for Block Edge Masks and for medium access adaptivity. This gives a complete toolset for the management of radio spectrum.

Because of the diversity of use of license-exempt spectrum, performance criteria must be formulated in terms that abstract from the details of equipment properties. Instead, they must be formulated in terms of spectrum utilization dimensions: RF power, time and frequency occupation. The result is a concise set of metrics that can be applied to the regulation or management of shared spectrum.

The mathematics used in this paper deal with high-level parameters and may ignore factors that are important in certain cases and may require refinement.

The implications of the proposed metrics include an increase emphasis on the objectives of spectrum policy and on measures to assure efficient spectrum utilization both within frequency bands and between adjacent bands.

There are no social implications the authors are aware of.

The originality of this work lies in recognizing that the extreme variety of devices and mode of operation deployed in license-exempt spectrum calls for spectrum management criteria that are technology agnostic.

The purpose of this paper is to propose technology-independent metrics for measuring spectrum utilization efficiency and spectrum sharing which could prove useful in spectrum management. Radio spectrum is considered a scarce resource. The rapid rise in all kinds of wireless devices emphasizes the need for spectrum usage efficiency and spectrum sharing. Notably in license exempt spectrum, the increased density of radio devices requires new methods of evaluating their performance.

The authors go back to the fundamentals of spectrum utilization and show that under high usage conditions, wireless network performance is interference limited. The impact of interference depends both on the environment and on the type of modulation used. The authors use these factors to derive the above metrics.

The main findings of this work are metrics for spectrum utilization and sharing that are technology-independent and therefore widely applicable, notably to license exempt spectrum. These metrics provide increased visibility of receiver performance in determining spectrum use. The authors also find that the capacity of a wireless network is for all practical purposes unlimited – provided the appropriate choices of the technical parameters are made, recognizing the impact of the propagation environment.

Because the authors proceed from simplifying assumptions, detailed analysis and prediction of spectrum-sharing cases may require additional parameters to be added to the equations given.

The results of this work have potential application in spectrum management and in the development of regulatory requirements for license exempt spectrum.

New in this paper is the derivation of spectrum utilization and sharing metrics from first principles that allow different technologies to be compared. The authors also show that, given the right choice of technical parameters, the capacity of wireless networks is practically unlimited.

Wi‐Fi technologies enable small‐scale, bottom‐up development of community networks in (rural) under‐serviced areas in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine: the constraints and opportunities that small Wi‐Fi providers have faced to date in their endeavors to develop Wi‐Fi community networks in South Africa; and the extent to which the newly introduced Electronic Communications Act of 2006 might alleviate any of the constraints.

Through interviews and document analysis the paper analyzes regulations and license application procedures in South Africa, and exemplifies the impact of both through discussion of experiences of a municipal and small private Wi‐Fi provider.

While formal regulation prohibits community network deployment due to low power limits and restriction of the use of Wi‐Fi within private premises, informal regulatory constraints as a result of lack of clarity on licensing requirements as well as time‐consuming application processes further prevent small Wi‐Fi providers from entering the market. In order to further stimulate universal access strategies, regulators may find incentives to ease these constraints, particularly as innovations in wireless technologies will continue to increase bottom‐up development of ICT networks by small local entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs, without extensive expertise in law and regulation, will increase the burden and workload of regulators that, particularly in developing countries, frequently face under‐capacity.

This paper extends the debate about spectrum‐licensing barriers for Wi‐Fi community network development in developing countries by providing insight into not only formal but also informal regulatory constraints that impede Wi‐Fi community network provision.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the possibility to replace radio equipment compliance requirements based on equipment parameters with a set of simple metrics that accurately reflects spectrum utilization and spectrum-sharing efficiency.

The approach taken is to go back to the basic factors that determine radio system behavior in a shared spectrum environment: radio frequency power, duty cycle and frequency occupation. By normalizing these parameters, device specificity is avoided and a statistical perspective on spectrum utilization and sharing becomes possible.

The analysis shows that two technology-neutral metrics would be adequate to govern spectrum utilization and sharing: a spectrum utilization metric and a spectrum-sharing efficiency metric. These metrics form the core of regulatory requirements for shared frequency bands. Each shared frequency band could be assigned criteria based on these metrics that take into account the types of applications for which that band will be used.

This work is a first step that identifies the main factors that affect shared spectrum usage from a statistical point of view. More work is needed on the relationship between real-world interference and its abstraction in the spectrum-sharing rules.

The metrics proposed could be considered as the basis for a new approach to the regulation of the license-exempt spectrum, and, by extension, as the basis for generic compliance criteria. Their use would facilitate the compliance assessment of software-defined radio technology.

This work has no direct social implications.

This paper combines new work on spectrum utilization criteria with extensions of previous work on spectrum-sharing efficiency into a comprehensive proposal for a new approach to the regulation of the license-exempt spectrum.

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of that contract. When such a repudiation has been accepted by the innocent party then a termination of employment takes place. Such termination does not constitute dismissal (see London v. James Laidlaw & Sons Ltd (1974) IRLR 136 and Gannon v. J. C. Firth (1976) IRLR 415 EAT).

The European telecommunications landscape has been transformed over the past 25 years, but spectrum management has remained largely unchanged. The paper seeks to highlight the need for a more flexible approach to spectrum management and, in particular, the role of shared spectrum access.

The paper draws on a research study to examine the value of shared spectrum access, based on a review of the literature, a survey of European national regulatory authorities, and scenario analysis.

The paper highlights trends in wireless data growth and, in particular, the impact of 4G cellular mobile technology over the next five years. With pressure also growing on the licence‐exempt bands at 2.4 and 5 GHz, a more flexible approach to spectrum management will be required in future, including light licensing, de‐licensing and spectrum sharing.

The paper brings together a range of evidence to show how the current approach to spectrum management is no longer able to cope with the social and economic demands for the radio spectrum. It should be of value to policy makers, industry analysts and academics.