49. ETSI-RRS Reconfigurable Radio Systems Standards

The evolution of classical, static Radio Systems toward Reconfigurable Radio Systems is a clear trend in the industry for several reasons – first, the lack of spectral resources forces manufacturer to exploit novel technological trends in order to meet 5G-related promises in terms of quality of service, latency, reliability, etc. Second, the fast evolution and heterogeneous nature of the radio environment combined with an ever-increasing computation power in mobile devices call for new ways of ensuring that the diverse environment is exploited in the best possible way; software reconfigurability is the key to dynamically adapt any target device to the specific needs of its owner through installation of tailored and targeted software components. All this flexibility, however, is useless without access to real-time, reliable context information which feeds decision-making entities in the network and in the mobile device or implemented in a distributed way such that the network and mobile devices participate in the decision-making process. The European Commission has recognized this trend in an early stage and acted correspondingly. ETSI received EC Mandate M/512 “Standardisation Mandate to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI for Reconfigurable Radio Systems” which has led to the development of the Licensed Shared Access Spectrum Sharing solution in ETSI’s Technical Committee Reconfigurable Radio Systems (TC RRS). Furthermore, the new Radio Equipment Directive creates a clear framework for Software Reconfigurable Radio Equipment in Europe. This section details the respective technical solutions and trends as they are currently being developed in ETSI standards.