ICTS Region 1 Newsletters

The International Consortium for Telemetry Spectrum (ICTS) is an international group of telemetry practitioners whose main objective is to ensure the future availability of electromagnetic spectrum for telemetering.

The ICTS was formed in 1999 and is chartered under the sponsorship of the International Foundation for Telemetering (IFT). The IFT is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the professional and technical interests of the telemetering community.

WHY THE NEED

Over the past few years, several factors within and external to the telemetering community have resulted in a change in the way the electromagnetic spectrum is viewed. These factors include :

• Radio Frequency (RF) spectrum utilisation is increasing rapidly and this trend is expected to continue,
• Telemetry is critical to the economic and security goals of many nations,
• Frequency bands used for telemetry have been reallocated for other use and continue to be at risk of reallocation,
• Increased demand for telemetry spectrum parallels the demand in the general telecommunications industry,
• Telemetry data rates are increasing, thereby increasing the RF bandwidth needed for each mission, and
• Additional frequency band allocations for telemetry may be unavailable or cost prohibitive.

ICTS members' actions take place on the national level. In the IUT radio region 1, we have a matrix concept procedure for promoting membership :

• In a given industrial field, (EUROCOPTER and AIRBUS, for example)
• In a given country, to enhance government authorities' awareness of ICTS activities in the light of WCR'2003

The European Union for ESA/ESOC, CCSDS Chair, is considered to be a country like for AAAF
The industrial or institutional research uses this double point of view.
The national sub-coordinator's role is to promote this matrix action with the aim of informing the national decision-making bodies contact points. According to analysis carried out for France in a given country, the "company" has a closely defined field of activity. This is the case of divisions of THALES and EADS. This coordinator for a given country appears very clearly to motivate companies falling into this definition to be represented for ICTS with regard to the state national decision-making bodies.

Members class

• Government Entity Definition
  Government entities are defined to include agencies of federal, state or local governments, and non-profit-making organisations under contract to them.
• Commercial Entity Definition
  Commercial entities are defined as manufacturers, vendors of equipment, software or systems, companies that use telemetry equipment, and suppliers of telemetry-related services, such as consulting.
• Academic Entity Definition
  Academic entities are defined as colleges and universities who provide educational and research services in the field of telemetry