White spaces: Accessing the Internet over unused portions of TV spectrum could provide good long-range connectivity in rural areas, and help fill in gaps in city networks. Microsoft researchers tested a new protocol, called White Fi, using the device shown here.
Microsoft Research
A network design that uses old TV spectrum could produce better long-range wireless connectivity.
Long-range, low-cost wireless Internet could soon be delivered using radio spectrum once reserved for use by TV stations. The blueprints for a computer network that uses "white spaces," which are empty fragments of the spectrum scattered between used frequencies, will be presented today at ACM SIGCOMM 2009, a communications conference held in Barcelona, Spain.
TV stations have traditionally broadcast over lower frequencies that carry information longer distances. However, with the ongoing transition from analog to digital broadcasts, more unused frequencies are opening up than ever.
By tapping into these lower frequencies, it should be easier to provide broadband Internet access in rural areas and fill in gaps in city Wi-Fi networks. For example, the spectrum between 512 megahertz and 698 megahertz, which was originally allotted to analog TV channels from 21 to 51, offers a longer range than conventional Wi-Fi, which operates at 2.4 gigahertz. "Imagine the potential if you could connect to your home [Internet] router from up to a mile," says Ranveer Chandra, a member of the Networking Research Group at Microsoft Research behind the project.
The FCC ruled last November that companies could build devices that transmit over white spaces but also gave strict requirements that this should not interfere with existing broadcasts, both from TV stations and from other wireless devices that operate within the same spectrum. Chandra and his colleagues designed a set of protocols, which they call "White Fi," to successfully navigate the tricky regulatory and technical obstacles involved with using white spaces.
"It's a totally different paradigm for wireless networking," says Chandra. "Until now, in wireless networks, you were given a spectrum, and you would share it with everyone else. Everyone was an equal stakeholder. Now, you have this spectrum where there are certain people who are primary users."
One of the main obstacles for Chandra's group was dealing with a network of different devices; in the past, work focused on sending and receiving signals between individual devices over white spaces.
Setting up a group of devices to communicate over white-space frequencies is a more complicated proposal, because white-space devices have to find available spectrum, which can change depending on where and when the device is operating. The researchers designed a system consisting of a wireless access point, like the router used in Wi-Fi networks, and the mobile devices communicating with it.
White Fi is designed so that each device measures the spectrum conditions around it and works with the others to find available frequencies. Because interference can happen at any time, the system can move to a different slice of spectrum if need be.
The next generation of Wi-Fi was supposed to offer a big boost in capacity and range.
After years of research, Microsoft hopes to provide a system that lets data communications weave through TV frequencies.
People in rural areas may gain more wireless airspace from the shutdown of analog television.
Do you not pay for your cell phone? your cable TV etc... I would gladly pay a fee (which will always be as high as the market will allow)for fast wireless connectivity. Also think of the millions of people that will benefit from this technology. People who are still using dial up. And I am not only talking about the first world. Think of how much cheaper a fast wireless network will be for poor countries and what it will do to the digital divide. Making money while helping others is not a bad thing. Hell , making money in general is not a bad thing. It is that drive that gets cool gadgets from the lab into your home. If it were not for that wish you would still be playing pong on your TV today.
Back room deals or not, I suspect that by increasing the number of potential service providers means more competition and "should" result in lower more competative rates for consumers. There may be some slick applications riding those frequencies too.
Maybe:
a channel for Civil Services
a channel for Telecommuting
A channel for Educational needs
A channel for music downloading or special content
A channel for digitized voice services
A set of channels for monitoring our environment
The list could be pretty large
However - just to be safe and throw in a curve in favor of conspiracy theories - those reduced rates will be negotiated by the Government whom will make 100% certain they take their slice of the pie or generous political contributions.
I don't have a problem with the technology. I wouldn't be here at TR if I did. I have a problem with the back room agreements created to benefit certain individuals. If you don't know what I mean by that, you have not been paying attention to the news for the last two years, the state of the economy and those who created the mess.
I too, have concerns, when it does not benefit all parties equally.
I live in a metro area, precisely so I can have Broadband, and this plan does me no favors.
I will still be required to consume the Big Media Corps Swill and Spin on Reality, while they distort the facts, and lift my wallet...monthly.
This tech should benefit All Equally
>regardless of locality...It should be...
A clearly drawn line on frequency division.
In the Digital TVv Broadcast Arena, I assume they are already Spreading themselves as Wide as possible.
Allow those who do not support the Big Media Stance to have a reasonable alternative, as it is their spectrum too.
Cognitive radio in general suffers from the deficiency that it cannot protect spectrum users it doesn't recognize. An unlicensed spectrum user, however, must accept whatever interference it receives, and not interfere with licensed users. Merely recognizing a WiFi signal is not enough if somewhere under the device noise floor is a voice or data link with priority.
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
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lasertekk
146 Comments
Well, yes...
There's a reason the law was passed, the spectrum auctioned off and analog TV transmissions were kicked off. This decently high frequency band allows good transmission distance without the need for towers. Hhmmm. I wonder who that will benefit? Think of the new services they can offer, at some new ungodly monthly fee. It was a special interest sponsored business plan from day one.
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