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Standards

Policy (1900.5R)

Every frequency you hand out comes with rules: national tables, host-nation limits, the theater's guidance, your own commander's priorities. IEEE 1900.5 sets out how systems that pick and change frequencies on their own are kept inside those rules. Its revision, 1900.5R, now with the working group, writes the rules as controls that an inspector can check from the evidence.

Rules flow down, evidence flows up

Policy is set at four levels, from national and theater planning down to a single radio in real time. Each level takes the policy above it and narrows it. A lower level can be stricter than the one above, but it can never allow what the one above forbids. Reports, measurements and records flow back up, so each level can check that the levels below it are following its policy.

The hierarchy of control: planning, inter-system coordination, intra-system coordination and node, with policy flowing down and evidence flowing up policy: inherited and narrowed evidence: reports, measurements, records Planning national and theater spectrum authorities: allocations, tables, standing guidance. Months to years. Inter-system coordination between systems, services and nations; where rules from different sources meet Intra-system coordination inside one system or network: its channel plans, its nets Node one radio, one sensor: real time, right now Scope narrows and time shortens as you go down
The hierarchy of control. A lower level may restrict, never permit what a higher level prohibits.

A rule you can check

A control is one requirement, written in plain, controlled English so it means one thing, with an identifier that never changes. Each control comes with the reason it exists and, most importantly, the inspection language: exactly what evidence an inspector looks at and what counts as a pass.

A system owner documents the evidence, and an inspector decides pass or fail from it. Nobody has to take a vendor's word that a radio "follows policy."

The parts of a control: identifier, predicate, rationale, notes, and evidence and inspection leading to pass or fail Control identifier stable: family, level, number Predicate the requirement, in controlled English Rationale and notes why it exists and how far it reaches Evidence and inspection what the inspector looks at pass or fail

Eight families of controls

Spectrum management

Bands, power, duty cycle, antennas, channel lists, site analysis. Staying inside the authorization comes first.

Policy enforcement

Which policy is in force, who issued it, its version and effective dates, and proof it was received and applied.

Interference mitigation

Known sources, the mitigation plan, checking the channel is clear, and when mitigation kicks in. See EMI.

Security and authentication

Who may change the configuration and the policy, and how a policy load is checked for tampering.

Network integration

The networks that carry policy, coordination and reports, and what happens when they're down.

Performance monitoring

Metrics, event records and compliance status reported back up the hierarchy.

Regulatory compliance

The regulatory domain, host-nation approval, and a trace from each directive to the controls that meet it. See Coordination.

Cognitive capabilities

Spectrum awareness and adaptive behavior, laid down now for the higher levels.

Four levels of compliance

You don't need a cognitive radio to start. BASIC is checked from documents. Each level above it adds what a system has to show.

Compliance levels as steps: BASIC documented, INTERMEDIATE demonstrated, ADVANCED machine-readable and automated, EXPERT cognitive and autonomous BASIC documented and inspected INTERMEDIATE demonstrated in operation ADVANCED machine-readable policy, automated checks EXPERT cognitive and autonomous, with human override normative now
Compliance levels. BASIC is required in this edition; the others are described for later ones.

In NEMESynth-EMSO

NEMESynth-EMSO's decision sheets are policy that a machine runs and a spectrum manager can read. In the SFAFx draft, a sheet carries who issued it, its version and when it takes effect, and travels sealed with the records it governs, so every node makes the same call. Spectrum use is described in the vocabulary of spectrum consumption models, the same terms 1900.5R uses.

FeatureStatus
Rules as decision sheets that run on every node and explain each callBuilt
Sheets carried with the records in sealed sets, with issuer and versionDraft
A check that a sheet never loosens the policy above itProposed

IEEE 1900.5R is a draft revision of IEEE Std 1900.5-2011 in the working group. Outline only; not quoted from the draft.

Turn your guidance into rules that run

Send us a piece of spectrum guidance your unit works under, and we'll show you it as a decision sheet with the evidence an inspector would check.

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