SPECTRUM SHARING CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE PROPOSED ESA ARCHIMEDES SATELLITE DAB SERVICE

At the 1992 World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC), spectrum was allocated, on a primary basis, to the broadcast satellite service (so und). The allocations were not, however, uniform world-wide, nor will the BSS(S) have sole use of these allocations. In addition, many count ries have reserved primary use of the spectrum for existing services u ntil 2007, with the BSS(S) permitted only on a non-interference basis. This situation will impose serious constraints on the proposed ESA S- DAB service, to be radiated from the 'Archimedes' constellation of sat ellites. The launch date for this service may be before the end of the century, and sharing with other spectrum users will therefore be nece ssary. Such users include fixed telephony links, broadcast links and m obile aeronautical telemetry. This paper reviews current spectrum usag e in Europe and elsewhere, and investigates the restrictions thus impo sed on the ESA S-DAB service. Numerical examples based on real-world s ystems are given, and demonstrate the feasibility, in many cases, of s pectrum sharing.