Spectrum policy and cognitive radio standards

Abstract

Standards, fundamental in many areas of technology, are particularly vital in communications as they provide the foundations upon which radio devices, network elements, and other essential parts and functionalities in the communication chain can talk to each other. Moreover, standards are of even further accentuated importance in CR and spectrum sharing scenarios, as such scenarios imply direct or indirect interaction involving a wider range of stakeholders, including regulators - implying different forms of standards (e.g., regulatory conformance standards). Given such observations, this chapter addresses standardization in the context of CR and spectrum sharing, particularly aiming to provide an opening and front matter to the more detailed coverage of some particular standards that are addressed in later chapters of this section of the book. In addition to providing this introductory material, this chapter addresses the broader scope of a number of relevant standards that are not detailed in the dedicated chapters. These include the TVWS regulatory conformance standard ETSI EN 301 598, the IEEE DySPAN-SC and IEEE 1900 series standards on various aspects of spectrum sharing and dynamic spectrum access, the IEEE 802.15.4m wireless personal area networks in TVWS standard, and the ECMA 392 TVWS MAC/PHY standard.