Requirements and Regulations in the 5 GHz Unlicensed Spectrum

Licenses and fees are not required for operators to use the 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum. However, in order to avoid interference and to ensure a fair use of this resource, numerous requirements and regulations are imposed by national and international organizations. When operating in this band, the emerging U-LTE technology needs to adhere to these regulations, as any other existing technologies, especially IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi, would. This chapter provides an overview on the radio spectrum resources in these bands and the related management and allocation concerns. It then summarizes a number of the key requirements and regulations specified by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on radio channels, operating channel selection, transmission power, and channel access rules. These technical details are the baselines to be followed when designing medium access control protocols for U-LTE and any other technologies operating in the 5 GHz unlicensed radio band.