Building Careers and Shaping Public Policy

9 December 2003

The Honorable Michael K. Powell
Chairman
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554

Dear Chairman Powell:

The IEEE-USA strongly supports the FCC's work on the Cognitive Radios (CR) as a specialized subset of Software Defined Radio (SDR). There are many technical and administrative issues yet to be resolved to make CR a success in improving the availability of radio spectrum for new technologies. Nevertheless, we support testing and implementation of CR and urge the FCC to move forward so that various experiments, tests and trials can begin. As a start, we encourage the FCC to:

1. Permit the use of "unused" frequencies/channels (TV, AM. FM, et al) for testing between and among CRs. (This can be geographically limited.)
2. Permit CR testing in restricted (licensed) spectrum, with limits defined, based on frequency and application.
3. Permit CR testing in the newer higher frequency license-free spectrum (60, 76, 90 GHz)
4. Permit CR testing in the more popular and occupied license-free spectrum (2.4, 5.3, 5.8 GHz, etc.)

We have enclosed our recently published position statement, "Improving Spectrum Usage Through Cognitive Radio Technology," providing additional insight. We stand firmly committed to support this endeavor of the FCC with the requisite technical and regulatory assistance. IEEE-USA is a very rich source of technical information about technologies related to CR and its implementation. IEEE's U.S. membership includes experts and practicing engineers in the wireless telecommunications arena.

IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., (IEEE) created in 1973 to advance the public good, while promoting the careers and public-policy interests of the more than 235,000 electrical, electronics, computer and software engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE. The IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society.

If we can be of further assistance, please contact Deborah Rudolph in our Washington office at (202) 785-0017 x 8332 or email at d.rudolph@ieee.org.

Sincerely,

James V. Leonard, P.E.
2003 IEEE-USA President

Enc.