The Radio Spectrum

Jean-Marc Chaduc was born in 1943. He is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and of the Ecole nationale supérieure des telecommunications. His first professional activity was as the technical director of the early french satellite telecommunication center at Pleumeur-Bodou where he contributed to operate the first generations of satellites. Later he moved towards a more administrative career in different ministries where he has been in charge of promoting new radio networks. Then, at the Ministère de l'Industrie, he worked at the new legislation for telecommunications. In 1996, he was in charge of designing the new french Agence nationale des frequences and was appointed its general director from 1997.

Radio frequencies have become a basic resource for the development of the information society. In fact, radio waves are a mandatory vehicle in order to carry the message to customers and a truly worldwide communication needs their properties. Given the market demands for more and more frequencies, means have to be found to share this limited resource most effectively and to continuously improve its efficiency. Radio spectrum management is thus a major objective for our modern world. This book describes the current tools for spectrum management with their fundamental technical and legal basis. It outlines the global evolution of radio services in their different application domains and introduces the actors who contribute to the collective management of the spectrum. It also discusses the main questions these actors have to deal with and answer in order to design for the future.

Part 1: The basis of spectrum management. Chapter 1. A bit of history, physics and mathematics. Chapter 2. Telecommunications. Chapter 3. Geography and radiocommunications. Chapter 4. Spectrum sharing, bases and actors. Chapter 5. Some regulated services. Chapter 6. Recent evolutions of radio services. Chapter 7. Regulatory instruments for spectrum sharing. Chapter 8. Frequency assignment: a contrast. Chapter 9. Spectrum monitoring. Part 2: Managers and their practices. Chapter 10. New technological perspectives and impact on spectrum monitoring. Chapter 11. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Chapter 12. Regional bodies. Chapter 13. National spectrum regulators and institutional debates. Chapter 14. Major current European and international issues to improve spectrum efficiency. Chapter 15. Regimes of radio spectrum management: a synthetic view. Chapter 16. Spectrum management practice. Chapter 17. The future of the spectrum: a road towards more flexibility.