U.S. and Japanese Approaches to SDR and Cognitive Radio: Legal and Cultural Factors Expressed in Certification and Technical Rules

Software Defined Radio (SDR), Cognitive Radio, and related technologies (Smart Radio) are exciting engineering advances but also important regulatory topics. Both the U.S. and Japan have wrestled with potential interference concerns regarding device conformity in reviewing SDR “certification” rules, and explored the potential of Cognitive Radio to achieve spectrum management goals. Nonetheless, how spectrum management goals are expressed in regulatory policy does vary. Where the U.S. has a growing list of SDR devices available to the U.S. consumer and significant licensed and unlicensed spectrum policy debates incorporating considerations of Cognitive Radio, considerations in Japan have proceeded at a different pace. This paper discusses the cultural and legal issues behind this policy divergence. In particular, the paper suggests that differences in legal authority to regulate radio equipment conformity with technical rules have influenced the pace of policy development on SDR and Cognitive Radio. The paper concludes that despite the differences, U.S. and Japanese policies may simply be proceeding at a different pace, but in the same direction.