The 66th meeting of the working group on Short Range Devices/Maintenance Group (SRD/MG) was held on 9-11 December 2015 in the German city of Mainz, chaired by Thomas Weber and attended by 41 participants representing various administrations and bodies, including the European Commission (EC) and European Communications Office (EC), as well as industry.
SRD/MG deals with issues concerning short range devices. Its responsibilities include updating Recommendation ERC/REC 70-03 and responding to the permanent EC mandate on short range devices with a view to updating the EC decision on low-power short range devices (SRDs), besides covering issues associated to ultra wide band (UWB) technology and the identification of new spectrum opportunities to introduce SRDs.
The new proposed ECC Decision (16)AA on “the harmonised frequency range 76-77 GHz, technical characteristics, exemption from individual licensing and free carriage and use of obstacle detection radars for helicopter use” was approved at the 40th ECC meeting (June/July 2015) for public consultation until 30 September 2015. The comments received were all considered and resolved by SRD/MG; the version approved by the group will be submitted to the next meeting of the working group on Frequency Management (WG FM) in February 2016 for consideration and approval before being forwarded to the ECC for final approval and publication.
SRD/MG prepared a proposed revision of ECC Decision (04)03 – “the frequency band 77-81 GHz to be designated for the use of Automotive Short Range Radars” – in the wake of results of the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15), which designated the 77.5-78 GHz frequency band with a new primary allocation, designating the entire 77-81 GHz band for use by short range radars installed in automotive vehicles. This proposed revision will be submitted to WG FM and to the ECC so the groups can decide how to proceed, given that there is an EC decision on this matter that also needs to be reviewed.
Regarding the annexes to Recommendation 70-03, several revision proposals were put forward and will be submitted to the next WG FM meeting in February 2016 so they can be adopted for public consultation, as indicated below:
- revision of annex 5 with a new entry for obstacle detecting radars in helicopters in the 76-77 GHz band in the wake of the new ECC Decision (16)AA;
- update of the content of annex 6 on radiodetermination applications to prevent use of frequencies designated in this annex by point-point and point-multipoint applications;
- merger of annex 13 (wireless audio applications) into annex 10 (radio microphone applications, including assistive listening devices – (ALDs)), resulting in a new annex 10;
- modification of annex 11 on radio frequency identification (RFID) applications to correct the regulatory solution in the 865-868 MHz band, which will henceforth be based on a four-channel plan;
- modification of appendix 5, specifically the definition for duty-cycle (DC), to make it stronger and more unambiguous.
Regarding the permanent EC mandate on SRDs, the group virtually completed the proposed CEPT Report 59 “in response to the EC permanent mandate on the annual update of the technical annex of the Commission Decision on the technical harmonisation of radio spectrum for use by short range devices”, ahead of the sixth update of the EC decision on SRDs (the last version is Decision 2013/752/EU). A web-meeting will be held in January 2016 to finish the document and forward it to the 84th WG FM meeting in February 2016.
The bands/applications proposed for inclusion in the EC decision on SRDs include the following: medical body area network systems (MBANS) in 2483.5-2500 MHz; narrow/broad band RFID in 13.56 MHz; helicopter applications in the 76–77 GHz band; ALD in the 173.965–216 MHz band; updated parameters for SRDs in the 122-123 GHz band in accordance with the latest CEPT studies (in principle, the new restrictions will not create problems because the equipment is not yet on the market).
Also standing out is the proposal to include the Commission Decision on UWB (2007/131/EC, modified by Decisions 2009/343/EC and 2014/702/EU) in the Commission Decision on SRDs and to revoke the Commission Decision on RFID (2006/804/EC), accordingly correcting the regulatory solution in the 865-868 MHz band, which will henceforth be based on a four-channel plan. This proposed CEPT Report 59 also proposes the elimination of some existing restrictions in several SRDs already authorised by the Commission Decision on SRDs.
