MASTS

1. MASTS News Update Issue 7 Summary 2002 • This Newsletter is aimed to provide a summary of the activities to date and also to provide details of the key milestones remaining in the project. • MASTS (Mobile Assignment Technical System) is a project that is set to revolutionise the way licences are authorised for Land Mobile Radio Products (including PBR, CBS and Maritime). MASTS will provide an automatic frequency assignment process that will take into account terrain and clutter information along with radio propagation models. This will enable more accurate coverage predictions and subsequently the interference potential to existing systems. Part of the algorithm will also consider the amount of radio traffic within a geographical area and the effect of new systems. The system will be accessible to the Customer via E-Licensing on the Agency’s Web Site. The aim is to provide automated assignments for the vast majority of incoming applications. The remainder will be manually dealt with by Agency licensing staff. • In 2002, the main activities were establishing the business processes and the requirements of the system. As part of the project management controls there have been three Independent Gateway Reviews undertaken by the Office of Government and Commerce (OGC). These ensured there was a sensible Business Justification, the procurement strategy was robust and then finally that the project was at a stage ready to make the investment. The project passed these reviews with success. • Our strategic IT partners RSI (Radio Spectrum International) were chosen to undertake the software development working in conjunction with the Agency’s Technical Computing and Propagation Modelling Unit (TCPMU). TCPMU have proposed an assignment algorithm based on Quality of Service. This will be reviewed externally from March 2003 for a period of 26 weeks. The validity and effectiveness of the algorithm will then be verified . A prototype will be released in February 2003 for internal use by the Agency to enable testing of the algorithm. This will be further enhanced over the coming months taking into account the recommendations from the review and the test results. • The next key milestones for MASTS are as follows: • March 2003 - Independent Technical Review Begins (lasts 26 weeks); • April 2003 - Stage 2 - Development Begins; • July 2003 - MASTS Iteration 1 delivered (RA HQ); • October 2003 - MASTS Iteration 2 delivered (RA HQ, and Local Offices); • January 2004 - MASTS Beta Delivered for User Acceptance Testing; • Mid 2004 - MASTS Final Version Delivered and Available via E-Licensing* • * subject to completion of inter-related projects • Meanwhile if you have any questions then please don’t hesitate to contact me: • Nigel Gunn • MASTS Business Project Manager (nigel.gunn@ra.gsi.gov.uk) Tel: 020 7211 0348.