WhiteSpace Alliance Publishes Testing Format for Wi-FAR Certification
Chelmsford, MA (PRWEB) April 12, 2017 -- The WhiteSpace Alliance (WSA) ®, a global industry organization enabling sharing of underutilized spectrum, today announced that it has published a test vector format to certify compliance with its TV white space Wi-FAR ® interoperability specification. The development effort for the format specification was led by AmeriSys, Inc., a founding member of WSA, in conjunction with member Saankyha Labs, a developer of chipsets and radios based upon the Wi-FAR specification. Results were reviewed and approved for certification by Alliance member companies.
White space solutions use available TV band spectrum to deliver cost-efficient, wireless broadband services. Wi-FAR, a WSA-developed derivative of the IEEE 802.22 Wireless Regional Area Network standard, is a point-to-multipoint wireless broadband specification. Wi-FAR supports line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight broadband services at distances up to 30 km, enabling deployment of middle- and last mile solutions to regional, rural and remote areas. TV white space can also support a range of current and emerging infrastructure applications, including machine-to-machine communications, Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Grid deployment, industrial automation and homeland security.
The WSA test vector format addresses Physical (PHY) and Media Access Control (MAC) layer transmission between white space base stations and customer premise equipment. The specification defines a standard, implementation-independent language for test vectors to evaluate interoperability of white space solutions, a key step in ensuring reliable multivendor operation of TV band wireless networks. Test vectors written in this standardized language will enable vendors to more rapidly converge toward a set of truly interoperable systems through a concise, comprehensive test suite. In addition, WSA’s format work has resulted in a series of clarifications and updates to the IEEE Std. 802.22-2011 Wi-FAR standard, which is now also approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
“Testing is an important and often resource-intensive development activity,” said Dr. Apurva N. Mody, Chairman of WhiteSpace Alliance. "Publishing our testing format will decrease development costs and speed time-to-market for solution providers, and ultimately lead to more reliable and interoperable product deployments. We are now actively developing test suites to further accelerate multivendor convergence of TV white space implementations.”
The Wi-FAR testing format is available immediately to members of the WhiteSpace Alliance.
WhiteSpace Alliance, developer of Wi-FAR™ and WSAConnect™ interoperability specifications, has a following of more than 200 major commercial, academic, government and regulatory organizations around the world. WSA member organizations benefit from access to technical specifications that decrease development costs; expanded access to global markets, regulators and government agencies; and ongoing marketing support at no additional cost. Consumers benefit from a multi-vendor, interoperable ecosystem that brings down the overall cost of broadband access. For more information on WhiteSpace Alliance, please visit http://www.WhiteSpaceAlliance.org
About WhiteSpace Alliance
The mission of the Whitespace Alliance (http://www.whitespacealliance.org/) is to promote the development, deployment and use of standards-based products and services as a means of providing broadband capabilities via WhiteSpace spectrum. By promoting the use of standards, the Alliance will enable companies to provide broadband connectivity at reasonable cost. The WSA will also act as an enabler of the emerging white spaces ecosystem by helping to put in place interoperability, conformance, and compliance testing to make sure that our member stakeholders get the needed information & collaborations to succeed both in the market place and with regulatory requirements. Interoperability specifications will allow multiple vendors to enter the market and help to reduce the costs for the consumers. WhiteSpace Alliance promotes the use of IEEE, 3GPP and IETF Standards for use in the WhiteSpaces.
Bill Mello, White Space Alliance 1, +1 978.877.0051, [email protected]
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