Lost Cause
It's a wrap!
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2001
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Maybe someone that has studied this more than I could clear this story.
Can frequency control open it to monitoring too? Do you think this will energize R&D to new devices that are more efficient? Is this a military scam?
SAN FRANCISCO — The Defense Department, arguing that an increasingly popular form of wireless Internet access could interfere with military radar, is seeking new limits on the technology, which is seen as a rare bright spot for the communications industry.
Industry executives, including representatives from Microsoft and Intel, met last week with Defense Department officials to try to stave off that effort, which includes a government proposal now before the global overseer of radio frequencies.
The military officials say the technical restrictions they are seeking are necessary for national security. Industry executives, however, say they would threaten expansion of technology like the so-called WiFi systems being used for wireless Internet in American airports, coffee shops, homes and offices.
WiFi use is increasingly heavy in major American metropolitan areas, and similar systems are becoming popular in Europe and Asia. As the technology is installed in millions of portable computers and in antennas in many areas, industry executives acknowledge that high-speed wireless Internet access will soon crowd the radio frequencies used by the military. But industry executives say new types of frequency spectrum sharing techniques could keep civilian users from interfering with radar systems.
The debate, which involves low-power radio emissions that the Defense Department says may jam as many as 10 types of radar systems in use by United States military forces, presents a thorny policy issue for the Bush administration.
"Nobody, including the Pentagon, doubts that this is important for consumers and industry," said Steven Price, deputy assistant secretary of defense for radio spectrum matters. "The problem comes when it degrades our military capabilities."
So far, though, there have been no reports of civilian wireless Internet use interfering with military radar, Edmond Thomas, chief of the office of engineering and technology for the Federal Communications Commission, said.
Industry executives say that military uses can coexist with the millions of smart wireless Internet devices that can sense the nearby use of military radar and automatically yield the right of way. These devices are in use in Europe and will soon be used in the United States.
But Pentagon officials say that the new digital technologies are unproven and could interfere with various types of military radar systems, whether ones used for tracking storms, monitoring aircraft or guiding missiles and other weapons.
The Pentagon wants regulators to delay consideration of opening an additional swath of radio frequencies in the 5-gigahertz band that is eagerly sought by American technology companies and is already in civilian use internationally.
In this country, industry executives and some members of Congress see new spectrum-sharing technologies as a way to jump-start innovation and commerce. Last month, for example, Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California, and her Republican colleague Senator George Allen of Virginia, said that they would introduce a bill in the next session of Congress to expand the radio spectrum available for wireless Internet use.
The military-industry debate also involves the merits of a technical standard known as dynamic frequency selection, which is being used by advanced wireless Internet radios overseas to avoid interference.
Military officials are asking the American industry, and companies in other countries, to create and install even more sensitive versions of dynamic frequency selection — something that the companies say may cause the technology to operate incorrectly. American executives say that the military's demands may also curtail the capacity of wireless Internet services and could even force a complicated redesign of millions of computer communications systems already in place or nearly ready for shipment.
Can frequency control open it to monitoring too? Do you think this will energize R&D to new devices that are more efficient? Is this a military scam?
SAN FRANCISCO — The Defense Department, arguing that an increasingly popular form of wireless Internet access could interfere with military radar, is seeking new limits on the technology, which is seen as a rare bright spot for the communications industry.
Industry executives, including representatives from Microsoft and Intel, met last week with Defense Department officials to try to stave off that effort, which includes a government proposal now before the global overseer of radio frequencies.
The military officials say the technical restrictions they are seeking are necessary for national security. Industry executives, however, say they would threaten expansion of technology like the so-called WiFi systems being used for wireless Internet in American airports, coffee shops, homes and offices.
WiFi use is increasingly heavy in major American metropolitan areas, and similar systems are becoming popular in Europe and Asia. As the technology is installed in millions of portable computers and in antennas in many areas, industry executives acknowledge that high-speed wireless Internet access will soon crowd the radio frequencies used by the military. But industry executives say new types of frequency spectrum sharing techniques could keep civilian users from interfering with radar systems.
The debate, which involves low-power radio emissions that the Defense Department says may jam as many as 10 types of radar systems in use by United States military forces, presents a thorny policy issue for the Bush administration.
"Nobody, including the Pentagon, doubts that this is important for consumers and industry," said Steven Price, deputy assistant secretary of defense for radio spectrum matters. "The problem comes when it degrades our military capabilities."
So far, though, there have been no reports of civilian wireless Internet use interfering with military radar, Edmond Thomas, chief of the office of engineering and technology for the Federal Communications Commission, said.
Industry executives say that military uses can coexist with the millions of smart wireless Internet devices that can sense the nearby use of military radar and automatically yield the right of way. These devices are in use in Europe and will soon be used in the United States.
But Pentagon officials say that the new digital technologies are unproven and could interfere with various types of military radar systems, whether ones used for tracking storms, monitoring aircraft or guiding missiles and other weapons.
The Pentagon wants regulators to delay consideration of opening an additional swath of radio frequencies in the 5-gigahertz band that is eagerly sought by American technology companies and is already in civilian use internationally.
In this country, industry executives and some members of Congress see new spectrum-sharing technologies as a way to jump-start innovation and commerce. Last month, for example, Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California, and her Republican colleague Senator George Allen of Virginia, said that they would introduce a bill in the next session of Congress to expand the radio spectrum available for wireless Internet use.
The military-industry debate also involves the merits of a technical standard known as dynamic frequency selection, which is being used by advanced wireless Internet radios overseas to avoid interference.
Military officials are asking the American industry, and companies in other countries, to create and install even more sensitive versions of dynamic frequency selection — something that the companies say may cause the technology to operate incorrectly. American executives say that the military's demands may also curtail the capacity of wireless Internet services and could even force a complicated redesign of millions of computer communications systems already in place or nearly ready for shipment.
