[opendtv] Resistance Lessens to White Spaces
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:59:34 -0500
"NAB's Science & Technology Department writes that one 'significant change' in
the new rules is the elimination of the requirement that TV band devices (TVBD)
employ spectrum-sensing technology for the presence of a broadcast station,
LPTV, or wireless mic."
Exactly. I think that defused some major objections.
Bert
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http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/107608
Resistance Lessens to White Spaces
by John Merli, 10.11.2010
WASHINGTON
The FCC's Opinion & Order in late September on white spaces was greeted mostly
with silence from parties heretofore highly critical of the proposal. The
sounds of silence from broadcast groups that have opposed the notion of tapping
into the mostly unused spectrum situated between broadcast channels by
unlicensed consumer devices may be partly due to a pending lawsuit. But the
commission's latest action also may have alleviated some of the key concerns of
the so-called "super Wi-Fi" proposal.
White spaces supporters, for their part, were not so quiet. Liam Quinn, chief
technology officer for Dell client products, said "opening [white spaces] will
unleash a whole new class of mobile wireless broadband services with
applications that are nearly limitless." The Dell exec said in addition to
providing Americans with greater online access, "I think TV white spaces will
enable seamless streaming of content among devices around the home and provide
greater broadband reach to businesses and schools in rural areas. It will
enable large-scale 'hot spots.'"
Audio-Technica, which manufactures wireless microphones, among the items most
impacted by the FCC's decision, also applauded the commission's actions. "Many
of our wireless systems are designed to work well when numerous simultaneous
channels are needed, or when used in channels adjacent to TV," the company said
in a statement.
'SIGNIFICANT MODIFICATIONS'
NAB, on the other hand, at press time (Oct. 4) was still holding its tongue on
the Sept. 23 ruling. Dennis Wharton, NAB's chief spokesman, told TV Technology
"we [still] have a pending court challenge based on 'arbitrary and capricious'
findings by the FCC. That lawsuit continues, and is pending in the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the DC Circuit." The litigation was held in abeyance pending FCC
action. Now that the FCC has acted, the white spaces litigation is again
proceeding.
The Association for Maximum Service Television, a co-party with NAB in the
court challenge, also begged off commenting on the FCC's latest white spaces
action. MSTV had been highly critical of certain aspects of the
issue-especially the wireless mic question-but the association has
uncharacteristically refrained from reiterating its position two weeks after
the FCC ruling.
Still, NAB has advised its engineers/members that the latest FCC order "makes a
number of significant modifications to the [original] 2008 rules." NAB's
Science & Technology Department writes that one "significant change" in the new
rules is the elimination of the requirement that TV band devices (TVBD) employ
spectrum-sensing technology for the presence of a broadcast station, LPTV, or
wireless mic. NAB tells its members "the new rules do include a provision for a
sensing-only TVBD, but they will be subject to rigorous testing by the FCC lab
before they can be put on the market."
The new rules also call for geo-locations (where arrays of wireless mics are
used on a fairly regular basis) to be registered in databases and, therefore,
at least theoretically protected from interference. By early October, at least
nine companies had submitted proposals to the FCC to manage these databases,
including Google (see below).
On the controversial wireless mics issue, NAB advises its members that the new
rules "significantly change protections" for licensed and unlicensed wireless
microphones. In its September order, the FCC called for reserving two vacant
UHF channels for wireless licensed and unlicensed mics in all regions of the
United States. These include the first channel above and first chanel below ch.
37 (608-614 MHz) not already occupied by an authorized service. If neither
channel is readily available, then the first two channels nearest to ch. 37 are
in play.
'VOTE OF CONFIDENCE'
Chris Lyons, Shure's manager of technical & educational communications, said
the FCC's latest order is "a definite vote of confidence from the FCC to
wireless mic users. All through this proceeding, the challenge for us has been
to let the FCC see exactly how important wireless mics are, and how many kinds
of users are dependent on them. They got that. Wireless has been a very large
part, and remains one of the fastest-growing segments of our business, for
years. That's amazing when you consider the typical wireless device costs 5-10
times more than wired," Lyons said.
"What's going to be more complicated now is that [new white spaces] devices
will be much more sporadic in their transmissions, and much more mobile, and
carried by a lot more people, so it does make the interference potential more
complicated," Lyons said. "But the [FCC] idea of setting aside those two
channels free of those devices is a fantastic solution."
Bill Kish, founder of Ruckus Wireless-which sometimes refers to white spaces as
"white-Fi"-thinks a key advantage of using additional spectrum is the low
frequency in which it operates and the low-power radios needed to access it.
"Depending on the location, white spaces are available between 50 and 800 MHz
[although not within a contiguous frequency band everywhere], which is far
lower and will deliver much greater range than the standard Wi-Fi frequencies
of 2.4 and 5 GHz," Kish said. "This makes it ideal for rural environments where
distance and coverage is everything-and where deploying a macrocell 3G network
in these areas is cost-prohibitive."
Kish said low-frequency signals also should provide better penetration through
walls and within buildings (a frequent gripe with current Wi-Fi). But he
cautions that white spaces is limited by its channel width. "Each white spaces
channel is only 6 MHz wide, with a maximum theoretical data rate of around 40
Mbps. And each channel is shared among potentially thousands of users within a
large range, given the distance that low frequency signals travel. Compare this
to 802.11n Wi-Fi which supports 20- and 40-Mhz wide channels and multiple
spatial streams capable of delivering 450 Mbps or more. The emerging 802.3ac
standard is looking to extend this even further..." Kish said.
A lingering concern, Kish added, will be the number of white-space channels in
the largest markets-i.e., New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and
Philadelphia-which he said will be extremely limited. "Remember that unlicensed
spectrum is just that... unlicensed. This means anyone can use it anytime for
anything. As a result, interference will remain an issue," Kish said. "New
'smart antenna' arrays with the ability to constantly survey the radio
environment to select the best signal path at any given time will add
significant value to making these wireless networks much more reliable."
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