Spectrum Management in
Mauritius and Motives for a
Reform
Jerome LOUIS CEng MIET
Director Engineering
ICTA
Monday, September 10, 2012
This Session
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What do we manage?
Why do we manage?
How are we managing the radio spectrum in
Mauritius?
What is good with our current management
method?
What are the limitations of our current
management method?
Where do we want to go?
How do we move from there?
Monday, September 10, 2012
What do we manage?
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Spectrum management agencies manage the spatial,
temporal and format (frequency, polarisation, etc…)
dimensions occupied by RF electromagnetic energy
radiated from transmitting antennas in order to ensure
a manageable level of interference at potential victim
receivers;
Two radio operators cannot use the same radio
frequency at the same time in the same geographic
area without causing interference to each other.
Monday, September 10, 2012
What do we manage? (cont’d)
Time
Frequency band
Monday, September 10, 2012
What do we manage? (cont’d)
3D Space
Monday, September 10, 2012
What do we manage? (cont’d)
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Due to imperfections in transmitters and receivers,
even if users transmit on neighbouring frequencies,
they can still interfere;
Signals transmitted in one channel “leak” into
adjacent channels and with practical receivers
signals in adjacent channels cannot be completely
removed from the wanted signal;
Non-linearities within transmitters and receivers are
also at the origin of interferences;
Monday, September 10, 2012
Why do we manage?
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The key purpose of spectrum management is
to maximise the value that society gains from
the radio spectrum by allowing as many
efficient users as possible while ensuring that
the interference between different users
remains manageable (Essentials of Modern Spectrum Management)
Monday, September 10, 2012
How spectrum is managed
traditionally?
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The spectrum manager provides each user
with the right to use devices that comply to
specific equipment standard and to transmit
on a particular frequency over a particular
geographical area;
In Mauritius these rights are given through
type approval certificates and licences;
Monday, September 10, 2012
National Primary
Allocations between
470-960 MHz
GE-06 Channel Plan
Monday, September 10, 2012
Evolution in Spectrum related
licences in Mauritius
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Act 1988 – telecom operator’s licence (e.g. for mobile
networks, no technologies specified), device licences
(including for mobile phones), relay link licences;
Act 1998 – telecom operator’s licence (technologies
specified, GSM, Analogue, UMTS), device licences
(mobile phones no more requires licence), relay link
licences;
Act 2001 – Spectrum licence (technologies not
specified), device licences (stations and apparatus),
relay link licences. Licensing exemptions given under
certain circumstances;
None of the above have materially changed the
underlying principles of traditional “command and
control” spectrum management
Monday, September 10, 2012
Command and Control
Spectrum Management
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Regulators decide on both the use of a
particular band and which users are allowed
to transmit in the band;
Keeping tight regulatory control over
spectrum use:
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Makes it easier to manage interference and;
Results in high technical efficiency of spectrum
use
Monday, September 10, 2012
Example: Decision of 5 June 2012
on additional spectrum for IMT in
the 1800 MHz band
Monday, September 10, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
What are the issues with
command and control and why
reform?
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Technologies now are flexible by default
 Software Defined Radios allow several technologies and
frequency band of operation in a single box (e.g. LTE, WiMAX,
3G);
 GSM compared to LTE is quite rigid – single bandwidth of
200kHz, single frequency band (900 MHz), single duplexing
method (FDD), single modulation scheme (GMSK), etc…
 LTE – several bandwidth possible (1.4 MHz – 20 MHz), more than
20 frequency bands, both FDD and TDD possible, adaptive
modulation and coding schemes, etc…
 Traditional ways of specifying licence conditions may limit
operators in taking advantage of these inbuilt flexibilities and
hence limit innovation in service provisioning;
 This may warrant introducing flexibility into spectrum
management by defining technology and service neutral licence
conditions.
Monday, September 10, 2012
What are the issues with
command and control and why
reform?
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Convergence of services results in additional
challenges for regulators in their decision process for
the appropriate frequency bands for assignment;
The Regulator may not be best placed to decide on
the most appropriate technologies to deploy in a
frequency band;
Many technologies do not get access to spectrum
because they do not comply with set standards;
The regulator may not be best placed to decide on the
economic value of the spectrum;
Monday, September 10, 2012
Where do we want to go?
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The objective is not to replace the current
spectrum management tools by new tools but
to add new spectrum management tools in
our tool kit
The proposal is to define:
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harmonized spectrum assignment
apparatus assignment;
flexible spectrum assignment;
class assignment;
Monday, September 10, 2012
Existing tools
New tools
What about international rights
and obligations under the Radio
Regulations
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Mauritius is an ITU Member State;
The Radio Regulations (RR) constitute the
principal regulatory framework within which
ITU Member States undertake to operate
radio services and are the basic tool for
international spectrum use;
Each country is however sovereign with
respect to its spectrum management policies
so long as it does not cause interference to
systems in other countries;
Monday, September 10, 2012
What about international rights
and obligations under the Radio
Regulations
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Adoption of flexible spectrum management may
sometimes require derogation to the RR and
application of Article 4.4 of RR (i.e. non-interference,
non-protection)
Mauritius, through its participation in the last WRC,
has made contributions with a view to study all
aspects of interference management resulting from
the impact of technical convergence on the radio
regulatory environment;
The contributions of Mauritius have been adopted
as a WRC-12 Recommendation and studies are
currently being undertaken under ITU-R Study
Group 1.
Monday, September 10, 2012
How do we move from there?
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Questions that are aimed to be answered at this workshop:
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Is the industry ready for a reform?
How should flexibility (technology and
service neutrality) be introduced in
spectrum access in Mauritius?
What benefits the industry will derive from
such flexibility?
How should the regulator define flexible
licence conditions in view of managing
interference between spectrum users and
uses properly? What should be the design
of spectrum licences?
Monday, September 10, 2012
How do we move from there?
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How far are market approaches to spectrum
management relevant for a small island economy like
Mauritius?
How far are auctioning and spectrum trading essential
to the reform of spectrum management, to what
frequencies should they apply, and what should be
auctioned precisely?
What are the benefits and drawbacks of spectrum
auctioning for the Mauritian context?
How should we go about choosing the right spectrum
management system(s) for Mauritius?
Monday, September 10, 2012
Thank You
Monday, September 10, 2012