By George Babinov, SBS expert.

The Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment Directive (R&TTE) 1999/5/EC has been in place for over 16 years now and has been the basis for the regulation of radio and telecommunication equipment. However, with developing technology comes the requirement for developing new regulatory instruments. After reviewing the R&TTE Directive and following the European Commission proposal the European Parliament and the Council issued a new European Radio Equipment Directive (RED), 2014/53/EU.

This Directive only applies to radio products so it makes no provision for Telecom Terminal Equipment (TTE). In addition to the RED, the European Parliament and the Council have issued additionally two new Directives of the electrical sector:

• New Low Voltage Directive (LVD), 2014/35/EU,
• and new Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive (EMCD), 2014/30/EU.

The Radio Equipment Directive (RED) has been in existence since the 11^th June 2014. The RED replaces the existing Directive, Directive 1999/5/EC – the ‘R&TTE Directive’, from the 13^th June 2016. European Member States are to have transposed the RED into national legislation by the 12^th June 2016 and so that it can come into force across Europe from the 13^th June 2016. [1]

In response to the new requirements the ETSI Technical Committee on Access, Terminals, Transmission and Multiplexing has started to perform additional revision of the drafts considering the impending implementation and enforcement of the RED regulation. As a result the workgroup Transmission and Multiplexing TM4 has approved its final draft of standard ETSI EN 302 217-1 V3.0.1 (2015-10): ‘Fixed Radio Systems; Characteristics and requirements for point-to-point equipment and antennas; Part 1: Overview, common characteristics and system-dependent requirements’ in support of implementing the RED requirements.

Standards for point-to-point systems, including antennas, cover a very large range of traffic capacities, channel separations, modulation formats and applications over a very wide range of frequency bands.

The regulatory framework for placing radio systems on the market, established by the RED Directive [1] also requires the availability of standards addressing the essential requirements under article 3.2 of the RED. ETSI EN 302 217 series meet this demand by providing a rational subdivision of equipment technical characteristics into:

• General system independent parameters, defined in ETSI EN 302 217-1;
• System dependent “main” parameters relevant to the “essential” requirements of article 3.2 of the RED Directive, briefly summarized in ETSI EN 302 217-1, and will be specifically defined in ETSI EN 302 217-2;
• System dependent “complementary” parameters NOT relevant to the “essential” requirements of article 3.2 of the RED Directive. These are applicable where specific deployment conditions or compatibility requirements are present, and are defined in ETSI EN 302 217-1. [2]

References:

[1]            Directive 2014/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available on the market of radio equipment and repealing Directive 1999/5/EC (RED).

[2]            Draft ETSI EN 302 217-1 V3.0.1 (2015-10): ‘Fixed Radio Systems; Characteristics and requirements for point-to-point equipment and antennas; Part 1: Overview, common characteristics and system-dependent requirements’.