Spectrum Policy and Regulatory Issues

Most wireless engineers are aware that national regulations in their country impose requirements on spectrum availability and equipment parameters, but may be unaware of the technical problems such regulations were intended to address. The general goals of such spectrum regulations from the beginning of most formal regulation in the aftermath of the Titanic sinking in 1912 have been, and remain today, to avoid interference and maximize the use of available spectrum. In this issue’s column we will focus on interference issue. Cochannel interference is the most obvious case, and life in spectrum policy would be very simple if radio propagation was monotonic with distance and deterministic and all interference could be prevented by keeping cochannel stations far enough away from each other.