Sidebar: New York Eyes Public Safety Spectrum, But Cost Could Be an Issue

Computerworld - The request for proposals that New York City's government issued for a massive public safety wireless network doesn't specify what frequency bands should be used. But the city said it wants to look at the idea of using a new 4.9-GHz public safety band that the Federal Communications Commission allocated last year.
New York already has a license to spectrum in the 4.9-GHz band, and the city noted in the RFP that it "is interested in exploring the suitability of this spectrum" for the wireless network. It added, though, that it would consider any "reasonable" spectrum solution -- a point that was reaffirmed by Gino Menchini, commissioner of New York's Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications, in an interview last week.
Mike Doble, a consultant at the Public Safety Communications Resource Center in San Ramon, Calif., said the 4.9-GHz band likely would meet the city's needs if makers of wireless equipment could take advantage of chip technology developed for the 5-GHz Wi-Fi band. But, he added, the FCC has set tight emissions limits on radios and other devices operating in the 4.9-GHz band, which could preclude inexpensive adaptation of 5-GHz chip sets.
The emissions limits could directly affect New York's wireless networking plans by making equipment developed for the 4.9-GHz band "too expensive," Doble said.
A number of vendors have asked the FCC to relax the 4.9-GHz emissions limits, as has the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC), which represents telecommunications managers in a wide range of public safety agencies.
In the rules it issued for the 4.9-GHz band in April 2003, the FCC said it would require the use of an "emission mask" on devices in order to control interference and improve reliability and performance.
The mask, which determines the waveform of 4.9-GHz devices, is directly incorporated into chip set designs, according to Sheung Li, product line manager at Atheros Communications Inc. in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Bert Williams, vice president of marketing at Tropos Networks Inc. in San Mateo, Calif., estimated that the 4.9-GHz masks could double the cost of wireless mesh networking products. Williams and some other vendors involved in the bidding process in New York said they expect that the city will have to use a mesh network design to achieve the data throughput and scalability it's seeking.
Vendors such as Atheros, Tropos and Cisco Systems Inc. are backing a petition that the NPSTC submitted to the FCC last July seeking reconsideration of the emission-mask policy. The council said in its petition that the current requirement "will addsignificantly to the cost of equipment ... and potentially cause a significant delay on the introduction of equipment" for the 4.9-GHZ band.
An FCC spokeswoman said she couldn't provide any insight into when the commission will make a decision on the petition.
But Williams said that Tropos and other vendors are pressing the FCC to speed up its decision-making process, with an eye on the July 21 deadline that New York has set for responding to its RFP.