The People's Republic of China merged its two former certification regimes to form the Compulsory Product Certification System. The new system, which became effective May 1, uses a single China Compulsory Certification (CCC) mark, replacing the CCIB and CCEE marks (see Figure 1). The new mark can be applied to products that meet electromagnetic compatibility or safety requirements. A letter designating the type of certification appears on the right-hand side of the design. For example, the letter S will appear on safety certifications.

Figure 1. Compulsory product certification mark.

This new certification system provides regulations for product certification, regulations for use of the CCC mark, and a catalog of products subject to the compulsory certification. The old systems, known as the Safety License System for Import Commodities and the Compulsory Supervision System for Product Safety Certification, will not be nullified until May 1, 2003, which allows manufacturers a full year to ensure a smooth transition to the new system.

"Having two separate government agencies responsible for product quality and safety certification and for domestic and imported products led to different administrative practices and confusion in the marketplace," says Fred Borda, director of marketing and business development for Compliance International (Pleasanton, CA). "Requirements were unclear to manufacturers, and there were cases in which products were required to obtain both marks."

Under the authorization of China's State General Administration for Quality Supervision and Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), the new unified system will be enforced by the Certification and Accreditation Administration (CNCA). Beginning in May 2002, the certification bodies designated by CNCA began accepting applications for the new system. CNCA no longer accepts applications for the old certificate and mark.

China's product catalog lists 19 product types that will be subject to compulsory certification, including electrical wires and cables; switches for circuits; installation, protective, and connection devices; low-voltage electrical apparatus; small power motors; electric tools; welding machines; household and similar appliances; audio and video apparatus; information technology equipment; lighting apparatus; telecommunication terminal equipment; agricultural machinery; medical devices; fire-fighting equipment; and detectors for intruder alarm systems. Subcategories are defined for each product type.

"The scope of products that must bear the CCC mark has been expanded beyond the combined scope of the CCIB and CCEE marks," Borda says. For example, he notes that the original list of ITE was fairly limited. The new CCC mark must be applied to not only desktop and portable PCs but also servers, printers, monitors, and copiers. Likewise, the list of telecom equipment now includes equipment such as ISDN terminals, mobile wireless handsets, conferencing systems, and network hubs as well as previously covered equipment such as telephone sets, fax machines, and modems.

According to CNCA, all products described in the catalog—whether imported or marketed by domestic manufacturers—must obtain certification and must apply the CCC mark before they can be imported or marketed. Effective immediately, products for which the old certificate and mark were compulsory, but which are no longer covered by the new system, do not require the old certificate and mark when they are marketed or imported. Beginning in May 2003, sellers or importers are not permitted to purchase, import, or sell products that do not bear the new certificate and new mark. For products that have obtained the new certificate and mark but that need to continue to use outer packaging bearing the old mark, the new mark must also be applied to place those products on the market.

Products purchased or imported before April 30, 2003, that bear either the Import Safety License and CCIB mark or the old safety certificate and mark may still be sold under the supervision of AQSIQ local branches with which such products are filed. Products for which the old certificate and mark are mandatory can be marketed or imported by either the old or the new certificate and mark until April 2003.

FCC Amends Part 15 for Digital Technologies "Increased spectral efficiency is becoming more important." —Kevin J. Martin FCC has amended Part 15 rules to permit new digital transmission technologies. The new technologies can now operate in the 902–928 MHz (915 MHz), 2400–2483.5 MHz (2.4 GHz), and 5725–5850 MHz (5.7 GHz) bands under the rules for spread-spectrum systems. The adopted changes provide manufacturers flexibility in the design and operation of frequency-hopping spread-spectrum (FHSS) systems in the 2.4 GHz band. The changes also waive the processing-gain requirement for direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DSSS) systems. FHSS systems transmit for a short period on a single frequency and then hop to other frequencies in a pseudorandom manner. DSSS systems multiply the data signal with a pseudorandom noise to spread it across the transmission spectrum. The advantage of FHSS is its greater interference immunity when compared with DSSS, whereas the advantage of DSSS is its maximum over-the-air data rate of 11 Mb/sec. Spread-spectrum devices, like all Part 15 devices, may not cause harmful interference to authorized (i.e., licensed) services, and they must accept any interference received from other devices. Until now, operation under Part 15 has been limited to FHSS and DSSS systems. When spread-spectrum rules were originally developed, high-data-rate applications were not anticipated. However, with the development of wireless local-area networks and the Internet, FCC opted to modify Part 15 to support new technologies (e.g., digital modulation techniques such as orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing) and evolving industry standards (e.g., Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11 [Wi-Fi]). In both FHSS and DSSS systems, the power density of the transmitted signal is reduced, lowering the possibility that the transmitter will interfere with other devices operating in the same frequency band. Because new digital modulation techniques have spectrum characteristics similar to DSSS systems, FCC has determined that the new techniques can operate under the same rules as DSSS devices in the 915 MHz, 2.4 GHz, and 5.7 GHz bands without posing an additional risk of interference. The May 16 amendment removes the rule that limits systems in these bands to using only DSSS and FHSS technology. Other changes permit the use of as few as 15 hop channels for FHSS systems in the 2.4 GHz band. These systems will be able to use channels with bandwidths up to 5 MHz wide, but they must reduce their output power to 125 mW if fewer than 75 hop channels are used. This action will allow newer FHSS systems to reduce the risk of interference by enabling them to avoid occupied channels. FCC also decided not to make adaptive hopping mandatory but to leave that requirement up to standards committees. In the 2002 Compliance Engineering Annual Reference Guide ("New Rules for Unlicensed Digital Transmission Systems"), Thomas N. Cokenias analyzes the ramifications of these very changes made to Part 15 and remarks that "the rule changes will create significant opportunities for valuable services and applications not currently permitted." At the time of his writing, the rule modifications were still under consideration. FCC Commissioner Kevin J. Martin points out that "increased spectral efficiency—particularly through spectrum sharing—is becoming more and more important as we face ever-increasing demands for spectrum." Moreover, he says he is confident that these changes will result in a more diverse set of products operating in the unlicensed bands.

HiperAccess Core Standards Approved

To ensure the interoperability of HiperAccess implementations, the DLC protocol specification is detailed and precise. The key component is the specification of protocol messages in abstract syntax notation 1 (ASN.1). The use of ASN.1 facilitates future upgrades, allowing different protocol versions to interoperate. The behavior specification is given in specification and description language (SDL) models covering more-complex protocol aspects.

The interoperability of devices produced by different vendors is ensured by the conformance test specifications, including both radio and protocol testing, being developed by EP BRAN. The specifications will be completed later this year.

The HiperAccess PHY specification (TR 101 999) is available on the ETSI Web site at http://portal.etsi.org/Portal_Common/home.asp. The DLC specification will be available at the end of May 2002.

Improved Interoperability for DECT

With increased user interest in wireless voice media, DECT has proved to be one of the favored technologies to provide wireless telephone terminals. The voice services that DECT could offer and the requirements for the terminals in regard to provision of such services are described in EN 300 444, the DECT generic access profile (GAP).

The general packet-oriented data services that DECT could offer and the requirements for the terminals in regard to provision of such services are described in EN 301 649, the DECT data packet radio service (DPRS) profile. This profile focuses on a multimedia application solution that combines both voice and data services and requirements. The DECT application-specific access profiles (ASAPs) belong to a family of industry-driven standards intended to enhance interoperability. Each identifies a specific application scenario and selects a subset of DPRS services plus a voice service.

DECT multimedia access profile (DMAP), described in EN 301 650, was the first ASAP to be ready. Developed for residential, small-office, and home-office applications, DMAP allows for the design of low-cost domestic devices for local data interconnection and Internet connection via a public switched telephone network or an integrated services digital network, while remaining compatible with existing GAP handsets.

The new version of DMAP published in April contains improvements related mainly to interoperability, including mobility management (MM) procedures between terminals when supporting GAP and DPRS. There should not be different subscriptions for voice (GAP) service and data (DPRS) services within the same terminal. In addition, the type of underlying media access control bearer service with procedures that do not require U-plane (e.g., MM) should be based on the capability supported by the terminals (e.g., a receiving side that supports both GAP and DPRS should be able to handle MM procedures on either a basic or advanced connection).

TR 101 178 can be downloaded from the ETSI Web site at http://www.etsi.org. The report describes the services and applications for which DECT may be used and lists ETSI documents related to the conformance testing and regulation.