Progress on TV-band internet access accelerating

Testing of TV-band internet access is growing around the globe.

The WhiteSpace Alliance (WSA) says that technology sharing and interoperability testing among its members is accelerating global deployment of TV-band internet access.

The alliance is developing standards-based interoperability specifications and enhancements that enable reliable implementation of broadband solutions based on efficient utilisation of TV broadcast spectrum.

“Our objective has always been to help our members get to market quickly with products that work together,” said Dr Apurva N Mody, chairman of WSA. “WSA’s focus on driving shared spectrum technologies from concept to deployment is paying off in a proliferation of new solutions.”

As an example of the progress being made, WSA member Saankhya Labs recently became the first semiconductor vendor to introduce TV whitespace chipsets. The baseband radio module is based on the IEEE 802.22 Standard and the WSA’s Wi-FAR interoperability specification, and includes base station and customer premise equipment components.

The platform provides a robust environment for original equipment manufacturers and carriers to deliver fixed wireless broadband access in rural and remote areas, even where vegetation prevents traditional line-of sight deployments.

Through the alliance, WSA founding member AmeriSys Incorporated of Canada has done extensive simulation and testing with Saankhya Labs to qualify interoperability of the AmeriSys whitespace radio currently under development with Saankhya’s development kit. AmeriSys plans to introduce its whitespace product later this year.

Carlson Wireless Technologies, a global leader in TV whitespace technology and an alliance member, recently announced the third generation of its widely deployed whitespace radio solution, RuralConnect, based on the ISO and IEEE-approved 802.22 standard.

RuralConnect Generation 3 incorporates chipsets from Saankhya Labs and will triple internet connection speeds to 25 Mbps, cover distances from 10-30 km, reduce latency and support four times as many users per sector.

Other WSA member organisations such as Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and Hitachi Kokusai have previously developed a prototype system based on the IEEE 802.22 specification. Extensive testing was completed in rural environments in Northern Japan using whitespaces to enable long-distance broadband internet access.

NuRAN Wireless, another WSA member, is in preparation for trials using TV whitespace as a backhaul link for its rural 2G mobile base station as well as its community network.

In addition, WSA Promoter Member Texas Instruments is actively engaged with a variety of original equipment manufacturers to deliver state-of-the-art DSP and RF chipsets for TV whitespace applications worldwide.

Based on extensive contributions from WSA member iconnectiv and the International Engineering Task Force PAWS specification for whitespace databases, the WhiteSpace Alliance developed its WSAConnect interoperability specification.

WSAConnect defines a standards-based mechanism to enable whitespace devices to discover and communicate reliably with appropriate shared spectrum databases.

The messaging framework enables devices to query those databases to determine availability of spectrum for a particular location and supports secure whitespace operation across devices, spectrum and geographies.

Several alliance member companies have successfully demonstrated interoperability using the WSAConnect specification.

In the future, this WSAConnect interoperability protocol specification will be extended for operation in the emerging dynamic spectrum access bands.

Collaboration among WhiteSpace Alliance members is also resulting in field trials across the globe. In conjunction with the Government of India, WSA is sponsoring deployments in several regions with products contributed by Carlson Wireless, iconnectiv, NuRAN Wireless and Saankhya Labs, in association with Tier 1 service provider Tata Communications, a WSA Promoter Member.

Image courtesy Peter Roberts under CC