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In the same manner that it is difficult to manage a company without management information, it is difficult to manage the spectrum well without information on its usage and quality.

• Quality information allows us to understand the degree to which the spectrum is being “polluted” by interference from sources such as unwanted emitters, or possibly in the future from devices such as ultra-wideband transmitters. It might allow us to modify the rules governing unwanted emissions or to modify the parameters of UWB if the noise floor was seen to be rising rapidly.
• Usage information allows us to understand how intensively the spectrum is being used, helping us to judge, for example, whether the licence-exempt spectrum is becoming congested or whether the basis on which we have made assignments is not in line with actual usage. It might provide important information to make a judgement about the introduction of new technologies such as cognitive radio. Finally, it might allow us to more rapidly detect sources of illegal transmissions, such as pirate radio systems, and quickly locate them.

We are conducting two primary areas of study in support of these duties, which are outlined below.

To understand spectrum quality we have commissioned the development of a portable and automated system which can measure the amount of interference compared to actual signal strengths across a very wide band from 100 MHz to 10.6 GHz. This will allow detailed analysis of the spectrum use and levels of interference across the most highly utilised and demanded frequencies. It will also allow the interference from new technologies such as UWB to be monitored. We call this system, Automatic Interference Monitoring System (AIMS).

To understand usage we have commissioned the design of an automatic monitoring station (AMS) that can be deployed in large numbers to monitor the radio spectrum and detect interfering radio signals with sufficient accuracy to localise and identify the source of the interference. It is expected that this work will lead to a demonstration of the concept to the point of producing one or more prototypes and the determination of the cost of deploying, maintaining and operating such a network in the UK.

• Automatic Interference Monitoring System
• Automatic Monitoring System
• Autonomous Interference Monitoring System- Phase II & Measurement of LE Usage
• Automatic Monitoring System – Phase II: Business Case & Trials

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