| Abstract: | At the 1992 World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC), spectrum was allocated, on a primary basis, to the broadcast satellite service (sound). The allocations were not, however, uniform worldwide, nor will the BSS(S) have sole use of these allocations. In addition, many countries have reserved primary use of the spectrum for existing services until 2007, with the BSS(S) permitted only on a noninterference basis. This situation will impose serious constraints on the proposed ESA S-DAB service, to be radiated from the ‘Archimedes’ constellation of satellites. The launch date for this service may be before the end of the century, and sharing with other spectrum users will therefore be necessary. Such users include fixed telephony links, broadcast links and mobile aeronautical telemetry. This paper reviews current spectrum usage in Europe and elsewhere, and investigates the restrictions thus imposed on the ESA S-DAB service. Numerical examples based on real-world systems are given, and demonstrate the feasibility, in many cases, of spectrum sharing. |
