Spectrum is the lifeblood of the Wi-Fi industry – and with more & more traffic moving to 5 GHz, the US government is already taking a concerted look at how to allocate more spectrum to Wi-Fi in that band. It’s not exactly around the corner, but there’s some chance that the groundwork to that end may be completed by the FCC this year.
The story revolves around 75 MHz of spectrum in the 5.9 GHz band (adjacent to the current unlicensed 5 GHz bands) right now reserved for the transport industry’s DSRC (Dedicated Short-Range Communications) system and 802.11p. The FCC allocated this band to DSRC way back in 1999, but since then it has not been used nearly as much as expected.
The industry – including the FCC – needs to figure out if there’s a good way of sharing this band between DSRC and Wi-Fi. I imagine there very likely is – but like everything else in regulation such sharing schemes need to tested, commented upon, and some kind of consensus will need to be reached. Wi-Fi is of course not foreign to sharing spectrum space with other uses such as weather radar (with DFS and TPC).
With Cisco & Apple declaring the 2.4 GHz all but dead there could more pressure on the powers that be to make space for more Wi-Fi. Even though the (poorly worded?) statement by Cisco & Apple earlier this week may be bizarre case of wishful thinking with so much traffic still moving on 2.4 GHz.
The good news is that a number of FCC Commissioners & members of US congress support more spectrum for Wi-Fi. That includes Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel & Ajit Pai, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D) and Senators Cory Booker (D) and Marco Rubio (R).If you want to follow the nitty-gritty of FCC politics, here’s Commissioner Rosenworcel’s most recent and very supportive statements on Wi-Fi and Congresswoman Eshoo’s pitch is here. Anna Eshoo represents California’s 18th District – which is basically Silicon Valley, by the way.
And of course Wi-Fi spectrum a hugely important subject in this forum. So we will be following this carefully and I will do my best to update you on the spectrum situation. We also (we can’t quite announce it yet!) expect that we will be digging into spectrum policy at Wi-Fi NOW in DC this April – so stay tuned for more details.
/Claus.
