Where we could be going with radio

This look at what could happen in the future with radio services is taken from a presentation by Chris Chapman, ACMA chairman, when he addressed nearly 300 delegates at the RadComms conference in Melbourne.

“My car is now smart. Not only can it automatically keep its distance from the traffic in front, it constantly reports its speed, fuel status and destination to roadside intelligence transport systems (ITS) terminals. These terminals monitor all the traffic going past and the information is processed in a central computer.”

This is the not-too-distant scenario predicted by Chris, who was looking into the near and distant future to see how radio may impact on such everyday occurrences as commuting to and from work.

He said that most traffic jams are caused by accidents but on-board vehicle radar has significantly reduced collisions.

“Since ITS can stop a car from running red lights, perhaps these collisions will all but disappear as well.”

Vehicle navigation could ensure that traffic is correctly spaced, while monitoring might make traffic jams a thing of the past.

He sees RFID playing a much more important role in everyday life, especially in the lives of drivers. It will register the vehicle and charges will depend on the roads used, the weight of the vehicle, its emission profile and the length of the trip.

“In the last two years, ACMA has been involved with GSI Australia in evaluating the effects of power increase for RFID systems on adjacent systems in the 900 MHz band. If the increase is feasible, RFID is set to become an even more powerful influence on our daily lives,” he believes.

A wider use of RFID will enable household groceries to be ordered , extending the technology that at the moment is limited to inventory control and some charging applications such as motorway tolls.

In the kitchen, his technology will take the form of tags on milk that will tell the fridge when the milk is out of date which will then add milk to the shopping list as part of the ‘internet of things’.

A food tag will contain the item’s organic history and freshness, either on a home system or on a PDA while shopping. Because the groceries are tagged, the kitchen will monitor them, reorder them and dispose of them as they get out of date and the automated ordering system will correct for underused items.

Within supermarkets, pricing will be updated and displayed electronically and the shopping trolley will have its own RFID reader.

“If you use an automated shopping list, the trolley will tell you where the next item is. If you choose to browse and impulse buy then the trolley (connected to your PDA) will keep a running total of purchases and, as you leave, automatically debit them via your phone or PDA. No checkouts. No queues, Nirvana,” he says.

Looking at further uses of RFID, he says home electrical appliances will be registered in the internet and identified by a tag. If the tag is removed, the network will not register it and the power system will not operate.

RFID will keep track of people and things. Airline passengers holding a tag boarding pass could be traced in the airport and the days of waiting for a passenger who has failed to board would be over.

Speaking about the square kilometre array, Chris said:

“ACMA engineers did a small but unusual thing. They embargoed an area round a small cattle station called Mileura in the central west of WA. This embargo was unusual because with the exception of spectrum-licensed bands, it covered all bands in that area under 25 GHz.”

He said the purpose of the embargo was to create a ‘radio quiet zone’ to protect the site for the proposed square kilometre array (SKA) for which Australia is now only in competition with South Africa.

When asked at the time why ACMA would do this, Andrew Kerans, executive manager, spectrum planning branch of the ACMA said: “It’s like getting a whole paddock of wheat from planting one seed — bugger all work for us but the potential is huge!"

Radioastronomy, like other services such as satellite earth stations, comprises expensive facilities that need deep levels of protection. ACMA was impressed when the CSIRO had looked to the future and proposed a site for the SKA which was supportable in the long run.

Now a licensing instruction (or RALI) specifies the licensing arrangements around the protected and embargoed area which is now centred on Boolardy Station. The array will cover most of Australia and parts of New Zealand, creating a huge aperture with which to collect faint radio signals from deep space.

The installation has not only brought into the country dollars but skills that make Australia a world leader in antenna and array systems design.

Turning to the internet, he said that carriers so far have had access to sufficient spectrum to offer a wide range of services.

“In the future, though, as customers demand more bandwidth and as numbers grow, carriers will want more spectrum and as machines become part of the internet, these demands will grow yet again,” he says.

ACMA’s spectrum planners anticipated this growing need and more than two years ago started looking at frequency bands and the potential for future broadband use. An important part of the study was to look at what was happening in spectrum allocations overseas because a band that is used globally is one that should be looked at for use in Australia.

“However, major candidate bands that are potentially suitable in the short to medium term are already in use by other services. Responses to ACMA’s two discussion papers on wireless access services  (WAS) have raised objections and concerns surrounding re-planning or re-allocation of these bands as well as arguments in favour. We hope to have something to say about ways forward later in the year.”

Radio, he says, could have an important part to play in combating climate change.

By controlling appliances to smooth the load required of power stations, it might be possible to reduce generator capacity and so greenhouse gases.

More accurately predicting the weather might be another area where radio could help.

“Recently, the Bureau of Meteorology asked ACMA’s spectrum planners for support to protect part of the 10 GHz band for space-based sensing. Agreement has been reached but work goes on to better understand their needs, he says.

“What this sort of sensing means for the future cannot be understated. Being able to predict changes to weather patterns, perhaps track the first cyclone to hit Sydney, to be also to predict and maybe even redirect flood waters, could save the nation billions of dollars.

On ACMA activities in general he said that, in conjunction with the Radio Communications Consultative Committee, the authority has resolved to make its spectrum work program more transparent to the industries that rely on spectrum; also to demonstrate its ‘first actionable steps’ to emerging demand pressures.

This is a key goal of the draft five-year spectrum outlook — to publish and keep current by regular updates ACMA’s understanding of emerging demand pressures and to give an indication of a forward work program for addressing these pressures.

One major issue is ACMA’s ongoing review of spectrum options for wireless access services.

“Let me simply state that ACMA is currently considering submissions to its second discussion paper on WAS, and that I have foreshadowed a mid-year target for signalling our thinking.”

ACMA
http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_310971