Wireless operation in the unlicensed PCS band

A portion of the emerging technologies band has recently been made available for unlicensed personal communications services. This paper reviews the new physical and operational rules for this unlicensed band. Both “isochronous” (voice) type services and “asynchronous” (data) services are accommodated in the band. Differing rules of access and operation apply to each service type. The physical aspects of the rules cover the areas of transmitter power, emission bandwidth, sub-bands, and spectral emissions. The operational aspects of the rules consider the protocol used for the channel access procedure. A process of channel monitoring with a threshold is used to provide a listen-before-transmit protocol to facilitate the sharing of channels in the band. Together, the rules provide an “etiquette” for the operation of wireless voice and data systems and represent a significant new opportunity for the extension of personal communications in the indoor and pedestrian environments