Spectrum management and compatibility studies with Python

TL;DR

This paper introduces the pycraf Python package for spectrum management compatibility studies, including implementations of ITU-R recommendations, and demonstrates its application in assessing 5G interference risks to radio observatories.

Contribution

The paper presents a new Python package, pycraf, for spectrum compatibility analysis, with implementations of key ITU-R standards and a case study on 5G interference to radio astronomy.

Findings

pycraf enables detailed spectrum compatibility analysis

Monte Carlo simulations assess 5G interference risks

pycraf integrates with scientific Python ecosystem

Abstract

We developed the pycraf Python package, which provides functions and procedures for various tasks related to spectrum-management compatibility studies. This includes an implementation of ITU-R Rec. P.452, which allows to calculate the path attenuation arising from the distance and terrain properties between an interferer and the victim service. A typical example would be the calculation of interference levels at a radio telescope produced from a radio broadcasting tower. Furthermore, pycraf provides functionality to calculate atmospheric attenuation as proposed in ITU-R Rec. P.676. Using the rich ecosystem of scientific Python libraries and our pycraf package, we performed a large number of compatibility studies. Here, we will highlight a recent case study, where we analysed the potential harm that the next-generation cell-phone standard 5G could bring to observations at a radio observatory. For this we implemented a Monte-Carlo simulation to deal with the quasi-statistical spatial distribution of base stations and user devices around the radio astronomy station.