Radio Resources and spectrum Management

- Radio Resource Management

Radio resource management (RRM) is the system level management of co-channel interference, radio resources, and other radio transmission characteristics in wireless communication systems, for example cellular networks, wireless local area networks, wireless sensor systems, and radio broadcasting networks. RRM involves strategies and algorithms for controlling parameters such as transmit power, user allocation, beamforming, data rates, handover criteria, modulation scheme, error coding scheme, etc. The objective is to utilize the limited radio-frequency spectrum resources and radio network infrastructure as efficiently as possible. 

The current wireless generation, 4G/LTE, works well for individuals, but can suffer bottlenecks when large groups of people in the same area use a network simultaneously. The new standard solves this congestion problem, potentially offering a 1000X capacity improvement compared to 4G/LTE. Nevertheless, this is essentially a theoretical possibility. Achieving it will depend on the future availability of certain technological improvements. In order to guarantee the quality of service, communication capacity leap of three orders of magnitude requires sophisticated interference management and communication channel protection from the interference generated by other users.  

 - Spectrum Management

Spectrum management is a growing problem due to the growing number of spectrum uses. Uses include: over-the-air broadcasting, (which started in 1920); government and research uses (which include defense, public safety—maritime, air, police—resource management, transport, and radio astronomy); commercial services to the public (including voice, data, home networking); and industrial, scientific and medical services (which include Telemedicine, and remote control). 

The spectrum is divided into different frequency bands, each having a specific application. For instance, the frequency band that covers 300 kHz to 535 kHz is reserved for aeronautical and maritime communications and the spectrum from 535 kHz and 1705 kHz for AM radio. This process is called "allocation". 

The next step is to assign frequencies to specific users or classes of users. Each frequency band has a specific assignment that depends on the nature of the application and the numbers of users. Indeed, some applications require a wider band than others (AM radio uses blocks of 10 kHz where FM radio uses blocks of 200 kHz). In addition, "guard bands" are needed to keep the interference between applications to a minimum.