The Software Defined Radio (SDR) Forum is supporting the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) call for advanced SDR and cognitive radio technologies to address the challenges of improving communications for the public safety community.

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In a written response to the FCC's Ninth Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on implementing a public safety broadband network (in the 700 MHz band) that would be nationwide and interoperable, the forum asserts that SDR and cognitive radio technologies have “significant potential for enabling lifesaving applications and improving radio performance and spectrum efficiency.”

The forum's response — spearheaded by Bruce Oberlies, chairman of the forum's regulatory committee — acknowledges the challenges posed in the NPRM, most notably the need for secondary operation in the presence of narrowband voice channels and for immediate access by public safety agencies.

The SDR Forum has a long working relationship with the FCC. In its NPRM response, the forum urged the FCC to complete a study to determine the amount of broadband spectrum required to support local, state, tribal and federal public safety users through 2020. The forum would be available to assist with such a study, which it contends would “avoid implementing a solution that could prove significantly bandwidth-limited for the proposed national public safety broadband network.”

Although the forum supports the NPRM's concept of using SDR and cognitive radio technologies for increased spectrum use in the public safety sector, it suggests that “initial deployment of these capabilities should be done in a manner that avoids possible degradation of mission-critical voice communications.”

For more information, visit www.sdrforum.org.