E-Band and V-Band - Survey on status of worldwide regulation
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Obviously, when light licensing is intended as only requiring notification/registration (i.e. rightmost cell
under light licensing in figure 1), the method is much less effective and, with respect to the licence
exempt case, offers the only advantage of having the database available to help resolve claimed
interference cases.
Licence exempt -
This method offers the most flexible and cheapest usage, but does not guarantee any
interference protection
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. It is most popular in specific bands (e.g. 2.4 and 5 GHz) where short range
devices (SRD) are allocated, but fixed service applications may also be accommodated; in addition, it is
often used in bands between 57 GHz and 64 GHz but traditionally has been less attractive there due to
the unfavourable propagation attenuation.
Block assignment/auction regimes
Block assignment
- the assignment might be made through licensing (renewable, but not permanent) or
through public auction (permanent). This is most common when fixed wireless access (point to multi-
point, P-MP) is concerned and the user is usually free to use the block at best to deploy its network; in
some cases, there might even be no limitation to the wireless communication methods used in the block
(e.g. P-P and/or P-MP, terrestrial and/or satellite or any other innovative technology or architecture). In
the most popular bands for this method, ECC recommendations exist suggesting intra-block protection
guidelines in terms of guard bands or block-edge masks (BEM), see: [5]. For some frequency bands this
method is considered the best compromise between efficient spectrum usage and flexibility for the
user.
Licensing fees
The above licensing conditions do not have, in general, specific linkage to the fees paid for the use of
frequency.
In most cases the right of use depends on the spectrum management department of an administration
(through appropriate regulations), while the fees usually depend also on the “economic ministry”
(typically regulated through higher level laws).
Therefore, in some cases, there might be little correlation between the licensing procedure and the
related fee; several examples of “standard” link-by-link fees applied to unplanned/uncoordinated links
exist (among which V-Band is typically considered).
One of the most popular methods to define fees for E-band usage is comprised of two main
components, namely:
The Application Fee, and
The Frequency Management Fee.
Simplifying these two components a lot gives the following:
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This method, in some scenarios, can be considered as the most efficient use of the spectrum, as users are forced on the one
hand to minimize generated interference and on the other hand, to maximize their immunity to interference.
