Radio Equipment Directive - A Novel Software Reconfiguration Framework

The European Commission recently published the revision of the novel Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU replacing the R&TTE Directive which has been in force since 1999. This Directive represents the basic regulation framework for the making available of radio equipment on the Single European Market. Among several changes, the new RED includes specific provisions enabling the usage Software Reconfiguration for Radio Equipment in Europe. At the same time, ETSI has developed a novel Software Radio Reconfiguration framework specifically meeting the requirements of the Directive and encompassing technical, certification and security solutions. This paper introduces and comments the related changes on the regulation level and introduces the ETSI solution which is ready to be applied for new type of radio equipment to be introduced in Europe.