The Federal Communications Commission’s Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) announced last week in a Public Notice that it is seeking comments on the Technology Advisory Council’s (TAC) white paper and recommendations for improving receiver performance issued earlier this year. The TAC white paper is the result of a 2012 request from FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski asking the Council to “evaluate the role of receivers in ensuring the efficient use of spectrum and provide recommendations on avoiding obstacles posed by receiver performance to making spectrum available for new services.”
The new TAC white paper proposes the creation of receiver interference limits be created to specify the levels of radio interference that receivers should be expected to handle without issues.
“By specifying signal power levels called ‘harm-claim thresholds’ that a service would be expected to tolerate from other services before a claim of harmful interference could be made, . . . [the approach] would make it easier to determine which party bears responsibility for mitigating harmful interference when it occurs,” the OET said in the Public Notice.
In addition, this approach would “avoid the need to mandate that receivers be built, sold or operated with specific performance characteristics” and “could incentivize incumbent spectrum users to improve receivers to more efficiently use spectrum without stifling innovation and receiver design.”
Comments on the possible actions specified in the white paper that the FCC could take to implement an interference limits policy, as well as comments on the overall interference limits policy proposed and information on the practical effects of the various options, are requested.
