SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT FOR SCIENCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0410006, by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Award No. NNH05CC15C, and by the Department of Commerce under Award No. DG133R04CQ0009, TO #26. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-14686-9
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-14686-0
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
COMMITTEE ON SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE RADIO SPECTRUM
MARSHALL H. COHEN,
California Institute of Technology,
Co-Chair
ALBIN J. GASIEWSKI,
University of Colorado at Boulder,
Co-Chair
DONALD C. BACKER,
University of California, Berkeley
ROBERTA BALSTAD,
Columbia University
STEVEN W. ELLINGSON,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
DARREL EMERSON,
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
AARON S. EVANS,
University of Virginia and National Radio Astronomy Observatory
JOEL T. JOHNSON,
Ohio State University
PAUL KOLODZY,
Kolodzy Consulting, LLC
DAVID B. KUNKEE,
The Aerospace Corporation
MOLLY K. MACAULEY,
Resources for the Future, Inc.
JAMES M. MORAN,
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
LEE G. MUNDY,
University of Maryland at College Park
TIMOTHY J. PEARSON,
California Institute of Technology
CHRISTOPHER S. RUF,
University of Michigan
FREDERICK S. SOLHEIM,
Radiometrics Corporation
DAVID H. STAELIN,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ALAN B. TANNER,
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Staff
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director,
Board on Physics and Astronomy
BRIAN D. DEWHURST, Program Officer (through July 2009)
DAVID LANG, Program Officer
MERCEDES ILAGAN, Administrative Assistant (through February 2008)
CARYN KNUTSEN, Program Associate (from March 2008)
VAN AN, Financial Associate (through May 2008)
BETH DOLAN, Financial Associate (from June 2008)
COMMITTEE ON RADIO FREQUENCIES
PAUL A. VANDEN BOUT,
National Radio Astronomy Observatory,
Chair
JEFFREY PIEPMEIER,
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
Vice-Chair
ANA P. BARROS,
Duke University
DOUGLAS C.-J. BOCK,
University of California, Berkeley/Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy
STEVEN W. ELLINGSON,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
DAVID G. LONG,
Brigham Young University
DARREN McKAGUE,
University of Michigan
JAMES M. MORAN,
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
MELINDA PIKET-MAY,
University of Colorado at Boulder
STEVEN C. REISING,
Colorado State University
ALAN E.E. ROGERS,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Haystack Observatory
LUCY ZIURYS,
University of Arizona
Staff
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director,
Board on Physics and Astronomy
DAVID B. LANG, Program Officer
CARYN J. KNUTSEN, Research Associate
BOARD ON PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
MARC A. KASTNER,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Chair
ADAM S. BURROWS,
Princeton University,
Vice-Chair
PHILIP H. BUCKSBAUM,
Stanford University
PATRICK L. COLESTOCK,
Los Alamos National Laboratory
JAMES DRAKE,
University of Maryland
JAMES EISENSTEIN,
California Institute of Technology
ANDREA M. GHEZ,
University of California, Los Angeles
PETER F. GREEN,
University of Michigan
LAURA H. GREENE,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
MARTHA P. HAYNES,
Cornell University
JOSEPH HEZIR,
EOP Group, Inc.
MARK B. KETCHEN,
IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
JOSEPH LYKKEN,
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
PIERRE MEYSTRE,
University of Arizona
HOMER A. NEAL,
University of Michigan
MONICA OLVERA DE LA CRUZ,
Northwestern University
JOSE N. ONUCHIC,
University of California, San Diego
LISA J. RANDALL,
Harvard University
CHARLES V. SHANK,
Janelia Farm, HHMI
MICHAEL S. TURNER,
University of Chicago
MICHAEL C.F. WIESCHER,
University of Notre Dame
Staff
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director
MICHAEL MOLONEY, Associate Director
ROBERT L. RIEMER, Senior Program Officer
JAMES LANCASTER, Program Officer
DAVID B. LANG, Program Officer
TERI THOROWGOOD, Administrative Coordinator
CARYN J. KNUTSEN, Research Associate
BETH DOLAN, Financial Associate
Preface
In the early years of the 21st century, policy officials recognized both the need for additional blocks of frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum for new technologies and the desires of existing users to obtain additional bandwidth. A number of activities were thus begun, with the goals of identifying unused frequencies and suggesting methods by which the regulatory structure could encourage their more efficient use. In June 2002, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) formed the Spectrum Policy Task Force for the following purposes:
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To provide specific recommendations to the FCC for ways in which to evolve the current “command-and-control” approach to spectrum policy into a more integrated, market-oriented approach that provides greater regulatory certainty while minimizing regulatory intervention; and
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To assist the FCC in addressing ubiquitous spectrum issues, including interference protection, spectral efficiency, effective public-safety communications, and implications of international spectrum policies.
The Spectrum Policy Task Force concluded that “while the commission has recently made some major strides in how spectrum is allocated and assigned in some bands, principally through flexible rules and competitive bidding, spectrum policy is not keeping pace with the relentless spectrum demands of the market. The task force has begun the process of reexamining 90 years of spectrum policy to
ensure that the commission’s policies evolve with the consumer-driven evolution of new wireless technologies, devices, and services.”1
Recognizing the growing importance of radio observations to their respective missions and the increasing potential for interference from new wireless technologies, NASA, the Department of Commerce, and the National Science Foundation commissioned the National Research Council (NRC) to identify the spectrum needs of today’s scientific activities and to assist spectrum managers in balancing the requirements of scientific uses of the spectrum with those of other interests. This report is written in response to that request. The committee discussed its original charge at length and chose to consider only the passive (“receive-only”) scientific applications of the radio spectrum, and specifically how the requirements for spectrum could be expected to evolve over the next two decades.2 This decision did not imply any prioritization of the active versus passive scientific uses of the spectrum, but instead stemmed from the committee’s recognition that passive scientific uses involve unique issues and that the committee had a limited amount of time in which to complete its task.
To address its task, the NRC’s Committee on Scientific Use of the Radio Spectrum—comprising representatives of universities, private industry, and nonprofit organizations3—employed four in-person meetings, four town hall meetings, and numerous teleconferences in the development of its report. The committee’s work was aided by presentations from a number of outside experts who provided detailed information at in-person meetings.
The committee focused on three major topics: Earth remote sensing (see Chapter 2), radio astronomy (see Chapter 3), and interference mitigation (see Chapter 4). It conducted an in-depth study of each of the major topics, including the current and expected future status of Earth remote sensing and radio astronomy and applicable radio frequency interference mitigation technologies. The committee developed a series of findings on the basis of the material presented in these chapters, together with an associated series of recommendations, to help ensure the viability of these scientific endeavors. The findings and recommendations are detailed in Chapter 5. As dictated by the statement of task, the committee did not make recommendations on the allocation of specific frequencies, but it did comment on spectrum use by the relevant scientific communities and how it might be protected in the future.
This report attempts to lay the foundation of an effort to identify the spectrum needs of radio astronomy and Earth remote sensing, identify the benefits of these two activities, and develop practical, forward-looking approaches to spectrum
1 |
Federal Communications Commission, Report of the Spectrum Policy Task Force, Washington, D.C., November 2002. |
2 |
The committee’s statement of task appears in Appendix A. |
3 |
Biosketches of the members of the committee are provided in Appendix B. |
access that are needed to ensure the necessary conditions for their important observations.
It is noted that a report on the uses of passive service4 bands for both Earth remote sensing and radio astronomy by a panel of the NRC’s Committee on Radio Frequencies (CORF) was published in 2007.5 The present report differs from the 2007 report in assessing both the current and future uses of the passive services. This report also includes a focus on technology for interference mitigation.
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Paul Feldman, Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, PLC,
Dale N. Hatfield, Independent Consultant, Longmont, Colorado
Anthony Janetos, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory,
Roger Lang, George Washington University,
Michael Marcus, Marcus Spectrum Solutions,
Thomas Meissner, Remote Sensing Systems, Inc.,
Steven Reising, Colorado State University,
Chris Salter, National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Cornell University,
Paul Vanden Bout, National Radio Astronomy Observatory,
William “Jack” Welch, University of California, Berkeley, and
David Woody, California Institute of Technology, Owens Valley Radio Observatory.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Martha Haynes, Cornell University. Appointed by the NRC, she was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.