Interview: “Standards will help us position our technologies”

Dominique Noguet, Head of Communication and Security Technology, Leti, an institute of the CEA
“Standards will help us position our technologies”

Leti has been working on a standard for cognitive radio since 2011. Why?
We developed a cognitive radio technology that leverages TV white space. In other words, it takes advantage of UHF bands allocated to TV broadcasting, but that are not being used locally. If we want to get manufacturers on board with this new technology, there has to be some kind of standard to ensure the compatibility of future products.

Who approves the standard? Is it up to each country or the international standards organizations?
There are several telecommunications standards organizations. We are working with one of the most influential, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which issues major standards like those for Wi-Fi and ZigBee.
However, each country has its own regulatory authorities responsible for broadcast frequency allocation. And we are looking at that aspect as well. Our strategy is to show the benefits of sharing the spectrum. We feel that a given band can be used for more than one purpose, like TV broadcast and cognitive radio, for instance. This is a shift from most countries’ single-use policies.

How is Leti helping with the standard?
The workgroup is chaired by an organization in Japan and counts around 50 members from around the world. We hold a monthly conference call and three or four meetings per year in the US, Europe, and Asia. We are all working toward the same goal, but we all have stakes in different technologies. So, we have to keep our eye on long-term objectives. We have been working on the standard since 2010 and the earliest we can expect the standard to be released is late 2015!

Contact: dominique.noguet@cea.fr

Facebook

Twitter