Ra­dio compatibility

Radio frequencies are a natural resource to be used in the best possible way. One of the Bundesnetzagentur's responsibilities is to establish technical compatibility between different radio equipment, services and applications before they are placed on the market.

Radio technical parameters relevant to compatibility

The Bundesnetzagentur discusses and coordinates radio technical parameters relevant to compatibility in cooperation with users, operators, manufacturers and other regulatory authorities in the context of international bodies (eg ITU-R, CEPT, ETSI).

They are reflected in

• the Radio Regulations and Recommendations of the ITU-R,
• Reports, Recommendations and Decisions of CEPT ECC,
• standards (eg ETSI),
• the Table of Frequency Allocations and the Frequency Usage Plan, and
• frequency assignments.

Coexisting access techniques in SRD bands

Short range radio applications, so-called Short Range Devices (SRDs), are becoming increasingly popular, not only for baby monitors and door openers, but also for alarm systems, home automation, smart metering and other radio applications. This success is due to the free availability of SRD bands, which are usually generally assigned and harmonised throughout Europe (eg 433.05-434.79 MHz, 863-870 MHz, 2400-2483.5 MHz), and the low price for end users. This, however, automatically leads to competition between the different forms of spectrum usage in these bands; "more powerful forms of usage interfere with less powerful ones" or "permanent use (eg wireless headphones) affects short-term use (eg central car locking systems or garage door openers)". Exclusive sub-bands in the above-mentioned bands only exist for safety-related radio applications, such as alarm systems.

The technical framework for radio applications is developed in various Project Teams (PTs) of CEPT (European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations) in coordination with the administrations and the relevant branches of industry. Project Team SE24 is responsible for radio compatibility studies for SRDs, and the Short Range Device Maintenance Group (SRD/MG) is responsible for spectrum management for SRDs. Currently these and other groups are actively working to find solutions to meet the growing demand for radio applications like smart metering, smart grids, M2M and home automation. When it comes to "distributing" the spectrum resources available, different – mostly diverging – interests of the industry must be reconciled. It is up to the administrations to take a fair decision.

Lending a substantial contribution to the work of these bodies the Bundesnetzagentur has commissioned an independent study on the coexistence of different SRD applications in the same frequency band to have a better basis for decision-making in the bodies. This study, written in English, has been made available to the expert bodies and can be downloaded below.

The study focuses on radio applications with low data rates, usually battery-operated. Some of the key topics addressed are:

• Performance analysis of channel access techniques
• Radio compatibility of simple and intelligent access techniques
• Radio compatibility between safety-relevant and other applications
• Can intelligent access techniques provide for a high degree of reliability and low latency? Or do some applications require exclusive frequency bands?
• Benefits of flexible and robust systems?

Coexistence study