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Friday, January 20, 2012

Digital Transmission Systems and Broadband over Power line among newly published FCC knowledge database (KDB) articles

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The Office of Engineering and technology maintains a knowledge database at https://apps.fcc.gov/kdb . The primary function of this service is to provide the public a means to research answers to equipment authorization questions. For questions that are particularly complex, frequently asked, or often misinterpreted, the FCC provides guidance documents on the subject.

Among the latest of these guidance documents , are guidance for performing measurements on Digital Transmission Systems (DTS), and an answer to the question “What are the measurement guidelines for equipment authorization for BPL systems?”

For Digital Transmission Systems (DTS), the primary changes are;

  • A revision and expansion of spectrum analyzer-based measurement methodologies.
  • A revision to the procedure for measuring power spectral density.
  • An expansion of guidance for measuring unwanted (out-of-band) emissions.
  • A new provision to permit antenna port conducted measurement of unwanted emissions in
    restricted bands.

For BPL, or, Broadband over Power line Systems, the FCC points to Second Report and Order FCC 11-160, namely Appendix D of the order, for measurement guidelines on these devices, this includes both in-house BPL and Access BPL. The rules that govern FCC compliance of BPL systems were revised In October of 2011. See my October 2011 article for background and history on this topic.