C band (IEEE)
4-8GHz radio band
The C band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies ranging from 4.0 to 8.0 gigahertz (GHz). However, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission C band proceeding and auction, designated 3.7–4.2 GHz as C band. The C band is used for many satellite communications transmissions, some cordless telephones, as well as some radar and weather radar systems.
The C band contains the 5.725 - 5.875 GHz ISM band allowing unlicensed use by low power devices, such as garage door openers, wireless doorbells, and baby monitors. A very large use is by the high frequency (5.2 GHz) band of Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11a) wireless computer networks. These are the most widely used computer networks in the world, used to allow laptops, smartphones, printers and TVs to connect to the internet through a wireless router in home and small office networks, and access points in hotels, libraries, and coffee shops.
Use in satellite communication
The communications C band was the first frequency band that was allocated for commercial telecommunications via satellites. The same frequencies were already in use for terrestrial microwave radio relay chains. Nearly all C-band communication satellites use the band of frequencies from 3.7 to 4.2 GHz for their downlinks, and the band of frequencies from 5.925 to 6.425 GHz for their uplinks. Note that by using the band from 3.7 to 4.0 GHz, this C band overlaps somewhat with the IEEE S band for radars.
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This entry incorporates text from “C band (IEEE)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.