Posts Tagged ‘TV White Spaces’

SWSPG adds new members and announces commercial TVWS pilot deployments

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

The Singapore White Spaces Pilot Group (SWSPG) added six new members today, and launched three commercial pilot deployments of TV White Spaces (TVWS) smart radio technology.

The three founding members of the SWSPG added six new members today.

The three founding members of the SWSPG added six new members today.

The three founding members (Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), Microsoft Singapore and StarHub) of the SWSPG introduced the following six members today.

  1. Neul Ltd, a Cambridge, UK-based TVWS Solutions and Services Company.
  2. Adaptrum, a Silicon Valley, US-based TVWS technology and solutions provider; whose TVWS System ACRS 1.0 was certified by the FCC and commercially deployed in the US.
  3. Power Automation Pte Ltd (a joint venture between Singapore Power and Siemens) which is a provider of smart grid solutions.
  4. Singapore Island Country Club, a golf and country club in Singapore.
  5. Spectrum Bridge Inc, a developer of spectrum management systems and a provider of spectrum sharing solutions, whose TVWS platform was the first to obtain FCC certification in the US.
  6. ZDW Systems Pte Ltd, an equipment manufacturer and solutions provider for wireless communications coverage enhancement networks.

The group also announced the first series of commercial pilot deployments of TVWS smart radio technology in Singapore.

“The Singapore TVWS pilots are very timely with the on-going digital TV transition and rising trends of the Internet of Things and Smart City regionally,” said Michael Thatcher, Chief Technology Officer, Public Sector, Microsoft Asia Pacific.

This will hopefully introduce a new class of wireless connectivity to Singapore, putting the island nation at the forefront of a new wave of wireless services innovation and Smart City applications.

With the support of IDA, these first three commercial pilot projects will attempt to demonstrate the characteristics and benefits of TVWS solutions in different environments and with different usage applications.

The first demo will penetrate the dense vegetation and challenging terrain of the SICC to enable wireless connectivity.

“IDA welcomes industry-led efforts such as the TVWS commercial pilots by the SWSPG. We will continue to support and provide regulatory guidance to industry initiatives looking at new and innovative ways to deploy TVWS,” said Aileen Chia, Deputy Diretor-General (Telecoms & Post), Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

The second demo will provide long-range wireless Internet coverage across the waters at the Singapore harbour.

The third demo will support smart grid applications that will impact the million households in Singapore.

These commercial pilots are conducted under a test licence from IDA and utilise a TVWS Geo-location Database developed by Microsoft, with the advice and inputs from IDA.

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Posted in Announce, Enterprise IT, Events, Figures, Internet, Lists, Microsoft, StarHub, Tech news, Technology | 1 Comment »

Maximising unused TV frequencies for wireless broadband communications

Saturday, August 11th, 2012

Utilising unused TV frequencies to provide wireless broadband connectivity increases the range and and penetration of coverage through foliage and reflective water surfaces that traditional Wi-Fi simply cannot penetrate.

Squeezing more more channels from the electromagnetic spectrum.

Squeezing more more channels from the electromagnetic spectrum.

Currently, the radio spectrum in the TV broadcast bands have been reserved for use by licensed broadcasters and are out-of-bounds for wireless broadband networks.

“Broadband connectivity is the ‘oxygen’ to today’s digital economy, and is fundamental to the wide adoption of cloud computing services that are already part of our daily lives, whether at work, home or play,” observed Jessica Tan, General Manager, Enterprise & Partner Group, Microsoft Asia Pacific.

However, much of these reserved radio spectrum remain unused and are called TV White Spaces (TVWS).

For instance, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia shares out the TV broadcast bands in the region and there are certain bands allocated to Malaysia and Indonesia that Singapore cannot use for TV broadcast.

If these TV White Spaces can be harnessed effectively for wireless broadband connectivity without interfering with the quality of TV broadcast, it will translate to better coverage, lower power consumption and reduced network costs.

“TVWS radio technology will create a new generation of wireless connectivity by unlocking these large, unused chunks of spectrum that will enable more ubiquitous and affordable wireless broadband for all,” said Tan.

The physical characteristics of the 700 MHz band (as compared to the higher-frequency 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands used by traditional Wi-Fi), for example, means that it can reach further, penetrate thick foliage, and transmit across reflective water surfaces with less interference.

In terms of bandwidth, however, both TVWS and Wi-Fi are capable of roughly 2Mbps per MHz. It is the penetrative and low-power attributes of the former that makes it an attractive supplement to the latter.

The spectrum as a precious commodity

Globally, explosive growth of wireless data traffic is putting a severe strain on today’s mobile and Wi-Fi network infrastructure, signalling the need for more efficient management of the spectrum, through policy and technology innovations.

The exploitation of TVWS turns unused TV broadcast frequency bands into premium wireless broadband delivery channels.

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Posted in Figures, Internet, Microsoft, Mobile, Network, Reference, StarHub, Technology | 1 Comment »