World’s First TV White Space Prototype Based on IEEE 802.22 for Wireless Regional Area Network

From replacing the current analog television (TV) technology with digital television technology, some of the spectrum previously used by analog television become vacant referred to as TV White Space (TVWS). The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) in the UK, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in Japan have initiated opening up the TVWS to wireless communication systems for efficient reuse of the unused TV spectrum, which is based on non-interfering with broadcast incumbents’ operation. The IEEE 802.22 Working Group has published the IEEE 802.22-2011 standard for TVWS broadband wireless access to regional areas where it is most needed and where the TV spectrum is least used. In particular, the IEEE 802.22 systems offer around 10 times the coverage of Wi-Fi as well as enable to provide reliable backup broadband communications in emergency. However, there is no TVWS systems based on the IEEE 802.22-2011 satisfying the FCC spectrum requirements.

The NICT, Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. and ISB Corporation in the future will develop the enhanced technologies based on the IEEE 802.22 standard and also work closely with WhiteSpace Alliance (WSA) (www.whitespacealliance.org) to provide products for worldwide markets. The NICT, Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. and ISB Corporation will demonstrate the developed prototype devices at the Super WiFi Summit(www.superwifisummit.com) in Miami, Florida, from January 30 to February 1, 2013.

For more information about the prototype, please visit the NICT press release at https://www2.nict.go.jp/wireless/smartlab/index.html.

The PHY part developed by Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. was conducted under a contract of R&D for broadband access in white space, organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan.

The WSDB provided by ISB Corporation is based on the technologies of WSDB by NICT (Press release). Based on the technologies, ISB Corporation newly developed a product that meets commercial requirement and is complied with U.S. TVWS database requirements.(http://whitespacetech.isbcorp.com/)

White Space Alliance (WSA) is an international alliance to promote the development, deployment and use of standards based products and services as a means of providing broadband capabilities via White Space spectrum. (http://www.whitespacealliance.org/)

Super Wi-Fi Summit is an international event to create a wealth of new opportunities in the White Space spectrum for consumers, enterprises, service providers and device manufacturers. (http://www.mobilitytechzone.com/super-wifi/)