Overview of PCS unlicensed wireless standards in the US

The demand for wireless services is growing rapidly. The extension of services into the in-building environments and in public pedestrian areas further enhance this trend. This trend is no exception in the United States. With the availability of spectrum in the PCS unlicense band it becomes apparent that standardization is required to provide cost-effective solutions for in-building business applications. This paper discuss the three user premise equipment wireless standards developed in the TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association). The main purpose of this organization was to develop the standards for inter-vendor operability for operation in the US PCS unlicense band. The three user premise equipment wireless standards are PWT (Personal Wireless Terminal), PCI (Personal Communication Interface) and PACS (Personal Access Communication System). Operation in the unlicense band is first discussed. Both voice or isochronous type services and data or asynchronous services are accommodated in the PCS unlicense band. Different rules of access governs each service type. A process of channel monitoring with a listen-before-transmit protocol is provided to allow for sharing of channels in the band. This process, also better known as the “etiquette rule” or “spectrum etiquette”, together with standardization of the three over-the-air protocols in the TIA provides a significant new opportunity for the extension of personal communications for the in-building business applications