WASHINGTON-The National Telecommunications and Information Administration said it is preparing a draft testing plan to examine the interference potential between ultra-wideband technologies and the global positioning system.
“My goal is to let science decide this, not politics,” said Greg Rohde, NTIA administrator and assistant commerce secretary for communications and information.
Ultra-wideband technologies long have been recognized as the technology of choice for ground-penetrating radars, but the technology has the potential to address a far wider range of radar, communications and positioning applications, including connecting mobile-phone calls directly to the landline network when the call is placed inside a building.
Once comments are received on the draft testing plan, NTIA hopes to conclude testing before the end of the year.
NTIA then will coordinate with the Federal Communications Commission on rules for ultra-wideband technologies. The FCC proposed earlier this year that ultra-wideband technologies be approved on an unlicensed basis pending the outcome of testing. Comments on the FCC’s proposal are due Sept. 12 with replies due Oct. 12.
The aviation community has expressed concern that ultra-wideband technologies cause interference with GPS systems.
“The critical thing that brings it home for all of us is all of the current airline delays. The salvation [for this problem] is GPS-based navigation. This is Plan A. If GPS is destroyed, we don’t have a Plan B,” said David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association.
Previous testing efforts of negative interference between ultra-wideband technologies and GPS have proven inconclusive. The Department of Transportation and the Ultra-wideband Consortium are each conducting tests, but Rohde said the NTIA tests are necessary so both groups will stop criticizing the other’s testing.
“If the GPS industry goes out and does its test and the ultra-wideband industry goes out and does its test, the two sides are going to continue to point and criticize each other’s studies. I think all sides want us to do it. They want it to be objective and credible. I hope they all will be able to live with the results,” said Rohde.
Some people in the aviation community are concerned the testing is being rushed.
“I just hope the FCC doesn’t move forward without the testing,” said Stempler.
Time Domain Corp. disputes this notion and in fact hailed NTIA’s desire to complete the testing within the FCC’s time frame. Time Domain was one of three companies to receive a waiver from the FCC in June 1999 to begin deploying its technology. The others are U.S. Radar Inc. and Zircon Corp.
The time line for testing is still in flux as NTIA waits for $600,000 in funding from the Federal Aviation Administration. Rohde said it was his impression that FAA Administrator Jane Garvey had said her agency would provide NTIA with this funding. If the funding is delivered, NTIA plans to work double shifts to complete the testing by the end of October. If the funding does not come through, the testing will not be completed until at least the end of the year.
In addition to circulating the draft test plan and publishing it in the Federal Register, NTIA has been holding meetings with the various stakeholders to get their input on the planned tests.
Ultra-wideband advocates are looking for specific things in the test plan, including real-world testing outside of a lab and testing against a control group of other unlicensed devices, said Jeffrey L. Ross, Time Domain vice president for corporate development and strategy.
Real-world testing is necessary, Ross said, because there many things that can interfere with GPS and “it is very hard to simulate all of those in a lab.”
Testing against a control group is necessary to prove that ultra-wideband devices don’t emit any more than other unlicensed devices.
“We don’t think ultra-wideband should be held to a different standard,” Ross said.
Testing is also under way to determine ultra-wideband technology’s impact on devices that use spectrum other than GPS.
