SDR FORUM LAUDS FCC PROPOSALS FOR ADVANCED SOFTWARE DEFINED AND COGNITIVE RADIO TECHNOLOGIES FOR PUBLIC SAFETY

DENVER, CO, March 19, 2007 -- The Software Defined Radio (SDR) Forum, (www.sdrforum.org), a nonprofit international industry association for reconfigurable wireless technology, 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.

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, chair of the SDR Forum's Regulatory Committee, acknowledges the challenges posed in the NPRM, most notably the needs for secondary operation in the presence of narrowband voice channels and for immediate access by public safety agencies.

The SDR Forum, which works closely with a number of national and international organizations in technology and standards development, has a long-standing working relationship with the FCC. In its NPRM response, the Forum urges the FCC to complete a detailed scientific study to determine the actual amount of broadband spectrum required to support local, state, tribal and federal public safety users through the year 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 utilization in the public safety sector, it suggests in its written response that "initial deployment of these capabilities should be done in a manner that avoids possible degradation of mission-critical voice communications."

These topics will also be addressed at the SDR Forum's upcoming general meeting in Dublin, Ireland (April 16-17), being held in conjunction with the IEEE Communications Society's DySPAN (dynamic spectrum access networks) symposium. The general meeting will bring together SDR development leaders from all over the world to discuss key issues relating to the technology and its deployment. The event is open to anyone interested in SDR and cognitive radio technologies; more details and registration information are available on the web at www.sdrforum.org/pages/whatsNew/whatsNewDetails.asp?id=379&news_cat=Forum+Meetings.

About the SDR Forum

Established in 1996, the SDR Forum is an international industry association dedicated to supporting the development and deployment of software defined radio systems that enable flexible and adaptable architectures in advanced wireless systems. Currently numbering 100 organizations, the Forum's membership spans commercial, defense and civil government organizations, including wireless service providers, network operators, component and equipment manufacturers, hardware and software developers, regulatory agencies, and academia from Asia, Europe, and North America. The SDR Forum's administrative office is headquartered in Denver.

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