While researchers in the U.S. are making strides in millimeter wave (mmW) technologies, the European standards organization ETSI announced that its Industry Specifications Group on millimeter wave transmission (ISG mWT) held its first meeting and immediately started working on a set of five specifications.
Besides potential applications and use cases, the specs include analysis of the maturity and field-proven experience of mmW transmission; an overview of V-band and E-band worldwide regulations; V-band street level interference; and a review of the mmW semiconductor industry technology status and evolution.
Millimeter wave spectrum in the 30 GHz to 300 GHz range offers more available spectrum than lower bands with larger channel bandwidths granting a fiber-like capacity. The spectrum can be made available readily and also can be reused easily; lower licensing costs lead to lower total cost of ownership and lower cost per bit of radio systems, ETSI said in a press release.
At the meeting held earlier this month, Renato Lombardi of Huawei Technologies was elected to serve as chairman of the ISG mWT while Nader Zei of NEC Europe was elected as the vice chairman.
"ISG mWT was conceived as an industry-wide platform to prepare for large scale usage of millimeter wave spectrum in current and future transmission networks by improving the conditions to make millimeter wave spectrum a suitable and convenient choice for all stakeholders," Lombardi said in the release. "The ISG aims to be a worldwide initiative with global reach and to address the whole industry: national regulators, standards organizations, telecom operators, product vendors and key component vendors."
Participation in the ISG is open to all ETSI members as well as organizations that are not members, subject to signing ISG agreements.
Last year, a group of New York University (NYU)-Wireless researchers published their findings in the Microwave Journal recounting how their new measurement tools and soundings from the Manhattan and Brooklyn rooftops of NYU are positioning the United States to take advantage of the high-frequency radio waves.
The NYU-Wireless researchers are urging the commission to quickly make mmWave spectrum available for commercial use and note that with suitable FCC regulations, new non-cellular-type providers could spring up almost instantly. NYU Wireless founder Ted Rappaport and his colleagues say that the technology exists today to create products and services such as Wi-Fi-like broadband, backhaul-network support in rural areas and new content-distribution businesses.
The FCC released its Notice of Inquiry on the use of spectrum bands above 24 GHz in October and received one round of comments by its Jan. 15 deadline, with reply comments due by Feb. 17.
For more:
- see the press release
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