Spectrum management a top issue as networks increasingly strained by mobile broadband, experts say

OTTAWA--The growth in mobile broadband over the next 10 years is expected to increasingly strain network capacity and place new demands on managing limited amounts spectrum, several panellists said Wednesday at the Radio Advisory Board of Canada’s 2010 Spectrum 20/20 conference. “Spectrum management and spectrum needs will increase in the future,” Dragan Nerandzic, chief technology officer with Ericsson Canada, said during the conference's opening remarks. Nerandzic said that by 2020 it's expected there will be about 50 billion wireless devices connecting with one another on networks. While a lot of these devices will be cellphones and similar handsets, a large number will be "machine-to-machine connections" with no human intervention. “As the use of mobile broadband spreads, it’s requiring more and more radio spectrum,” Larry Strickling, assistant secretary of communications and information administrator with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the United Sates, noted during a keynote address. “The number of active mobile Internet users in the US has doubled in the past few years to over 40 million. The growth rate for the adoption of mobile broadband is greater than the growth rate for landline DSL and cable broadband services combined.” Strickling said Cisco Research has estimated that wireless networks in North American will carry about 740 petabytes of data per month by 2014--a 41 per cent increase over last year's mobile data usage. “The growth of wireless broadband will be constrained if government does not make wireless spectrum available to allow for network expansion and technology upgrades,” Strickling said. Peter Rysavy, president of Rysavy Research, a wireless technology consulting firm, said there is a looming crisis regarding the demand for wireless spectrum. Rysavy said that to meet demands in Canada, wireless carriers will need another 100 Mhz of spectrum over the next three to four years. “Mobile broadband is taking off,” Rysavy said. “But we are reaching the theoretical limits of spectral efficiency.” Rysavy said that 3G mobile wireless technology is permitting network usage to approach the limits of the Shannon-Hartley theorem, which says channel capacity is limited to a finite volume that cannot be theoretically surpassed. New technologies can make more efficient use of spectrum--but they cannot surpass the finite capacity determined by the theorem. One panel at the conference, called “Coping with demand,” explored technological and managerial ways to meet increasing demand for spectrum. Nikos Katinakis, vice-president of network strategy and technology development with Rogers Wireless, discussed a number of new technologies that can make more efficient use of spectrum. One technique he described, called aggregation, combines two pieces of HSPA+ spectrum to achieve a 42 Mbps transfer speed. He said systems in Australia currently using aggregation can switch between 21 Mbps and 42 Mbps based on the user’s needs. “It’s smart, intelligent, a great use of spectrum, and it allows the networks to improve performance,” Katinakis said. Brian Miller, manager of the radio spectrum policy and planning energy and communications branch at the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development, said improving the spectrum allocation process can also help meet demand. In New Zealand, the free market manages 95 per cent of spectrum, he said. “Economics 101 says that you should point to the market to sort these things out,” Miller said. He added that market forces are the best way to determine the use of scarce resources. Miller said that the government only plays a limited role in spectrum allocation by creating frameworks for spectrum caps--to ensure that one party does not monopolize spectrum and that the parties build infrastructure to properly use the spectrum within an appropriate time frame. Brett Tarnutzer, co-founder of KB Spectrum, a consulting group that specializes in spectrum issues in the United States, also recommended spectrum management through market forces. “When given the chance, the markets really worked, and the real story was that all the engineers we talked to said they found ways to work out issues if they were given the freedom negotiate and work within the system,” Tarnutzer said, referring to a spectrum liberalization study KB Spectrum conducted last year. He said transparency in the auction process can help ensure that spectrum is allocated where it belongs. “The process really benefits from a very open and transparent dialogue, from the surface consultation to the auction consultation to the auction itself,” Tarnutzer said. jmigneault@thewirereport.ca

Spectrum management a top issue as networks increasingly strained by mobile broadband, experts say

News | April 22, 2010

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