Coordination between Environment Canada (NMHS) and Industry Canada (Spectrum Regulator)

1. www.ec.gc.ca Coordination between Environment Canada (NMHS) and Industry Canada (Spectrum Regulator) 1st ITU/WMO SEMINAR ON USE OF RADIO SPECTRUM FOR METEOROLOGY, GENEVA, 16-18 SEP 2009 Gilles Fournier EC RF Coordinator, Vice-Chair WMO SG-RFC Meteorological Service of Canada Weather and Environmental Monitoring

2. Outline • Environment Canada Program Activity Architecture • The Radio-Frequency Coordination Process within Environment Canada • Canada’s Working Structure on Spectrum • Industry Canada –Environment Canada Cooperation on Non-WRC Matters • Challenges Working with the Spectrum Regulator • Conclusions Special thanks to Bun-Ret Ly and Chantal Gazaille from Industry Canada

4. 2. Weather and environmental predictions and services reduce risks and contribute to the well-being of Canadians

5. ISO Process on EM Spectrum Protection Coordination created in in 2008 Process metrics difficult to measure as outcome not controllable: However appropriate interventions can be tracked and assessed. RF-CoordinationISO-9001 Process

6. In Canada, the structure dealing with WRC issues is setup by the National Spectrum Regulator, i.e. Industry Canada (IC): Canadian Preparatory Committee (CPC): Sub-Working Groups (e.g.: SWG 2A et 2B) report to Working Groups (e.g.: WG 2) Working Groups (WG) report to CPC CPC approves Canadian contributions to CITEL, CPM and WRC Canadian National Organization (CNO): Canada mirrors the Study Group (SG)/Working Party (WP) structure of ITU-R - same technical terms of reference apply Contributions to ITU-R WPs and SGs are approved by CNO WPs first, then by their CNO SGs (same process as ITU-R’s) CNO CITEL PCC-II Group deals with regional (ITU Region 2) issues Groups working on/from US-Canada bi-lateral agreements Various groups are setup as needed to deal with non WRC issues of national nature, e.g. adapting Canadian spectrum regulations, standards, specifications Canada’s Working Structure on Spectrum

7. Canadian Preparatory Committee (CPC)

8. WRC-12 Issues and Canadian Stakeholders Direct interest Indirect interest

9. IC-EC Cooperation on Non-WRC Matters • Numerous national ad-hoc groups working on non WRC issues, e.g.: • RSS-200 on devices using Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology • SRSP-513 for Advanced Wireless Services in the Bands 1710-1755 MHz and 2110-2155 MHz • SRSP-154 for Land Mobile and Fixed Radio Services Operating in the Band 1670-1675 MHz • Monitoring of Intra-Aircraft Wireless Systems Communications (IAWC) • Boeing/EC/IC field studies on airborne RLAN versus C-band weather radars • EC/IC/CRC field studies on ground-based RLAN versus C-band weather radars • Discussions with Cisco on ground-based RLAN systems in 5GHz • EC/IC/RABC/CanWEA on the establishment of guidelines for wind farm projects • EC/NOAA/IC Weather Radio coordination • EC responsible to register all of its systems operating in radiocommunications services • EC seeks help from IC, CSA, the international community (e.g. WMO)… as required • EC responds to requests from IC

10. Challenges Working with the Regulator (1/3) Simplistic Weather Forecasting Process ANALYSIS SPECTRUM DATA FORECAST-WARNING No data = no forecast-warning / Degraded data = degraded forecast-warning No spectrum = no data / Degraded spectrum = degraded data DISSEMINATION VERIFICATION & ARCHIVING However the relationship in the chain from spectrum to actions taken based on output is extremely complex, leading to difficulties in building business cases

11. Challenges Working with the Regulator (2/3) • Spectrum management is not a core part of an NMHS' mandate - resources for RF-Coordination are generally quite limited reducing the ability to respond quickly and thoroughly to emerging issues • NMHS use a wide variety of bands for various purposes, covering many radiocommunications services.  It is difficult to keep up with the rapidly emerging issues and volume of documentation • Frequently the NMHS are using systems that are not used by the private sector so that there is little familiarity of the equipment, the spectrum uses, and the particular sensitivities.  The private sector and regulators sometimes apply inappropriate assumptions in their analyses as a result of this lack of knowledge • The increasingly complex telecommunications environment requires much cross-specialization coordination and the bringing together of members of various small communities of experts with limited availability

12. Challenges Working with the Regulator (3/3) • Regulators and other stakeholders generally have little understanding of the NMHS systems, their use of spectrum, their mandates and how spectrum management decisions can impact their public-good results: • climate and weather do not “recognize” national/regional borders • data exchange and use is global because the atmosphere and its processes are global.  Loss of data in one region can adversely affect many regions • spectrum use may vary by country/region due to legitimate, non-discretionary climatological reasons (C-band vs. S-band for example) • passive sensing has specific purposes and special needs - a rise in the noise level that may be considered small for some spectrum use can destroy passive sensing capability • Broadcasting/Communications services are only one small part of the critical services in case of a disaster.  Monitoring the situation and gathering appropriate data for analysis is equally important - and that requires adequate spectrum

13. Conclusions • Coordination between National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and National Radiocommunication Administrations/Regulators is critical to our community • It is essential for the NMHSs to maintain close contact with their NRA/Rs and to actively participate in their national radiofrequency processes • It is desirable that NMHSs, through their national delegations, participate in the regional and international radiofrequency processes • NMHSs can count on the support of the WMO Steering Group-Radiofrequency Coordination members in their dealings with radiofrequency matters

14. CanWEA – Canadian Wind Energy Association CITEL – Inter-American Telecommunication Commission CITEL PCC.II – CITEL Permanent Consultative Committee II CNO – Canadian National Organization CPC – Canadian Preparatory Committee CPM - Conference Preparatory Meeting CRC – Communications Research Centre (Canada) CSA – Canadian Space Agency EC – Environment Canada IC – Industry Canada ISO – International Organization for Standardization ITU-R – International Communication Union-Radiocommunication NOAA – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NMHS – National Meteorological and Hydrological Service RABC – Radio Advisory Board of Canada RF – Radio-Frequency RLAN – Radio Local Area Network RSS – Radio Standards Specification SRSP – Standard Radio System Plan IAWC – Intra-Aircraft Wireless Systems Communications (IAWC) WMO – World Meteorological Organization WMO SG-RFC – WMO Steering Group – Radio-Frequency Coordination WRC-12 – World Radiocommunication Conference 2012 List of Acronyms

15. www.ec.gc.ca