International Telecommunication Union
Telecommunications Development Bureau
National Frequency Allocation Table,
Licensed vs. Unlicensed spectrum use
Dr. Arturas Medeisis
ITU-BDT Spectrum Management Expert
ITU Regional Workshop on Efficiency of the
Frequency Spectrum Use in the Arab Region
Amman-Jordan, 5-7 Dec. 2011
Scope of presentation
•
•
•
•
Role, principles and structure of NFAT
Developing and publicising NFAT
Licensing status of different services
Comparative overview of different
licensing types:
– individual
– general == un-licensed use
– light-licensing
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Role of NFAT
• Most important piece of national SM
legislation
Policy
Telecoms Law,
NFAT, rules
Radio
Market
Practice
Artefacts
Monitoring
NRA
Enforcement
Licence
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
Individual
General
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Role of NFAT (II)
• The legal instrument for transposition of ITU RR
provisions into national law
• Sets the founding and ground-rules for the use
of radio spectrum
• May contain some additional legal/technical info:
– type of licensing
– technical provisions (channelling, power limits, etc.)
– future strategy for the frequency band
• Important to keep in mind the balance of
providing additional information vs.
consideration of frequency of updates!
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Principles of NFAT
• Consistency with ITU RR provisions for
respective region:
– NFAT may specify not all services allowed by
RR for given region/frequency band!
• Consistency with any applicable regional
spectrum harmonisation initiatives
• Sub-allocations and designations to
specific uses/applications:
– E.g. RR: Mobile Service -> NFAT: Public
Cellular
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Principles of NFAT (II)
• Important role of NFAT as setting the
national departmental SM limits (if any!):
– e.g. civil vs. military frequency bands
– domains of specialised authorities
(broadcasting, aeronautical, maritime)
• although ideally all spectrum management
should be concentrated in the hands of
one authority for the sake of maximum
efficiency!
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Structure of NFAT
• Terms and definitions
• NFAT (sometimes different tables for
different parts of spectrum)
• Applicable international footnotes
• National footnotes
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NFAT examples (I)
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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NFAT examples (II)
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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NFAT examples (III)
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Developing and maintaining
• The NFAT is a living document!
• The most obvious updating cycle is linked to the
WRCs, however more frequent changes might
be needed depending on national content
• Important to include all stakeholders/major
spectrum users into the review and updating
process:
– to ensure most optimal partitioning of spectrum
– to ensure understanding and commitment by all
spectrum users
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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NFAT publication
• Traditional way: hard copy (PDF on the
website)
• Fancy way: wall charts
• Increasingly: electronic online databases!
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Electronic publication example
www.rrt.lt
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Licensing status
• May be embodied directly in NFAT or, by
default, by a principle of exclusion:
– every radio apparatus which is not granted
any special spectrum access rights by
separate governmental order is subject to
individual license
– i.e. the users may look up any “special
spectrum access orders”, and if their desired
apparatus/network/radio frequency band is
not provided for, they should apply to NRA for
licence
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Individual licensing
• Hence the default type is Individual Radio
Apparatus Licence:
–
–
–
–
given equipment type
at a given place
with a given antenna (type/gain/height)
at a given frequency channel(s)
• This is the absolute safest harbour for both NRA
and the user as it provides maximum certainty
and security
• But more elaborate types are required to cope
with modern times...
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Unlicensed spectrum use
• Also known as General Authorisation
• Establishes use of radio devices without
individual authorisation
• Is suitable for radio services/devices that
have self-containable interference
potential
• Two variants may be distinguished:
– Licence-exempt application
– Commons Band or ISM Band
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Licence-exempt applications
• Licence-exempt access usually means a
an order exempting very specific
application(s) from individual licensing:
– e.g. Mobile phones, Short Range Devices,
VSAT, radio amateurs etc
– may be one or more bands associated
– some “blanket” conditions are imposed, i.e.
maximum power limit, adherence to some coexistence protocol requirements, compliance
with OOB limits, etc. (these often defined in
the “equipment standard”)
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Commons Band
• In this case the order decrees a certain
band available for use by “any device” :
– best example – 2.4 GHz ISM band
– still some “blanket” conditions are necessary
to contain the interference, but expressed in a
more general way, such as maximum power
limitation or other similar generic (technology
neutral) requirements of RF emissions, cf.
well known example of FCC Part 15 rules
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Benefits of unlicensed use
• For industry:
– easier development of low cost wireless devices
– economies of scale, cheap RF modules for commons
bands
– harmonisation between different countries
– simplicity for users
• For NRAs:
– reduction of administrative work
– no need for planning, coordination
– providing for development of innovative industries
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Drawbacks of unlicensed use
• For industry:
– no protection from interference
– no quality of service assurance for users
– usually quite low power limits reduce
communications range
• For NRAs:
– uncontrolled growth in number of devices may
bring interference to unacceptable levels
– marginal loss of licensing revenues
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Light-licensing (I)
• A novel type of licensing, suitable for services which:
– are characterised by high and fluid demand
– have a significant mutual interference potential
– yet their protection can be established by simple
means/calculation method
• In this case it might be easier for NRA to withdraw from
daily handling of these numerous coordination requests
• Instead providing some kind of simplified notification or
even automated self-service licensing, e.g. user selfregistration of radio devices in an online database with
automated interference check
– hence, simplified/self-service==light
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Light-licensing (II)
• Having some kind of registration
procedure allows:
– control/limit the number of devices
– collect some nominal fees, both as means of
incentive pricing and to recover licensing
costs (i.e. IT application/database
maintenance costs)
• Still, even “light” registration requires
certain professionalism on the part of the
user/operator
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Light-licensing (III)
• Examples of services/applications
considered suitable for “light-licensing”:
– GNSS ground repeaters
– repeaters in public cellular systems
– VSATs in harmonised FSS bands
– FWA/BWA base stations in dedicated bands
(e.g. 5.8 GHz)
– mm-band short-to-medium range (1-3 km) FS
Point-to-Point links
– Radio Amateur, Maritime (Ship) stations
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Light-licensing implementation
• Via online licensing systems of NRA
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Comparison of different regimes
Individual authorisation
(Individual rights of use)
Individual licence
General authorisation
(No individual rights of use)
Light-licensing
Licence-exempt
Individual frequency
planning /
coordination
Individual frequency
planning /
coordination
No individual
frequency planning /
coordination
No individual
frequency planning /
coordination
Traditional procedure
for issuing licences
Simplified procedure
compared to
individual licensing
Registration and/or
notification
No registration nor
notification
With limitations in the
number of users
No limitations in the
number of users nor
need for coordination
Source: CEPT ECC Report 132
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General picture
Authorisation:
Licensing regime:
General Authorisations
Individual authorisations
Licence exemption
License:
Administrative
assignment
Light
Licensing
(registration/
notification)
Management
approach:
Generic
uses
License:
Market mechanisms
Flexibility
and spectrum
trading
Specific
uses
Private
common
s
Collective use of
Spectrum
Increasing protection
No fee
Cost recovery
Incentive prices
Fees set by market
Source: CEPT ECC Report 137
ITU Regional Workshop, Amman, 5-7 Dec 2011
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Other important novel terms
• Underlay spectrum access:
– a kind of unlicensed spectrum use based on
assumption of secondary non-protected noninterfering very low power access, i.e. with emissions
below the noise levels of primary service, hence
“underlay”, example: UWB
• Overlay spectrum access:
– future technology of “intelligent” interspersing of
secondary transmissions in the unused spectrum
spaces of primary user. Also known as Dynamic
Spectrum Access. Most advanced development: TV
White Space Devices
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Conclusions
• The NFAT is a very important regulatory
document that sets the ground rules for national
SM
• The choice of licensing regime for given
frequency band is not a trivial task
• Novel licensing regimes, such as Light-Licensing
or Unlicensed use (as well as Underlay and
Overlay uses) may bring important degrees of
flexibility for NRAs and facilitate more efficient
use of spectrum through deployment of
innovative wireless services
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Thank you!
Dr. Arturas Medeisis
am@sm-jazz.lt
ITU: Committed to connecting the World
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