WhiteSpace Alliance Sees New Use Cases Emerging for TV White Space Communications
Flexible Wireless Infrastructure Enables Innovative Broadband Applications
CHELMSFORD, Mass., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The WhiteSpace Alliance (WSA)®, a global industry organization enabling sharing of underutilized spectrum, is seeing emergence of diverse new use cases for TV white space communications.
TV white space has often been deployed in multiple locations around the world to provide broadband Internet connectivity to underserved populations, particularly in rural and remote areas. The technology uses idle TV band spectrum ("white space") to deliver fixed wireless broadband services over long distances, providing critical middle- and last-mile connectivity where wired infrastructure is not cost effective to deploy.
"Beyond its distance advantages, TV white space infrastructure is proving to be a versatile solution to a variety of communications challenges," said Parag Naik, CEO of Saankhya Labs, a WhiteSpace Alliance member company. In one example, a New Zealand logging company is using Saankhya's Base Station and Customer Premise Equipment to safely navigate logging machines through dangerously steep slopes. In another case, Saankhya combined its white space equipment with its Broadcast Radio Head product to enable a rural cable service provider to intelligently direct video traffic over the air while using TV whitespace to support two-way communications for interactive TV and educational services. Other Saankhya customers are adopting the company's solutions to provide video surveillance for border enforcement and other electronic security applications. Saankhya products are also employed as backhaul links for Internet of Things applications, such as aggregating ocean temperature data to cloud storage.
The flexibility of TV white space technology makes it ideal for a broad range of implementation environments. The powerful propagation characteristics of TV band broadcast signals support robust, non-line-of-sight communications where hilly terrain or vegetation make traditional line-of-sight wireless solutions unreliable. As a lightly licensed, low power wireless technology, there is no need to purchase and develop expensive rights of way. In addition, TV white space solutions are relatively easy to deploy: white space antennas can be mounted on homes and can be solar powered.
Saankhya's solutions comply with important international standards for wireless regional area networks, and have received regulatory certification in multiple countries. The products are based upon the IEEE 802.22 specification, which defines advanced radio technology for dynamically sharing available TV broadcast spectrum to provide broadband connectivity. The products are also compliant with Wi-FAR®, a derivative of IEEE 802.22 developed by WhiteSpace Alliance. Wi-FAR is an interoperability specification that can enable development of a standards-based, multi-vendor ecosystem for IEEE 802.22-compliant products. Earlier this year, Saankhya products became the first to be certified Wi-FAR compliant by the US Federal Communications Commission.
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.
About Saankhya Labs
Saankhya Labs is a wireless communication solutions company delivering products based on its award winning, patented Software Defined Radio SoC platform. Saankhya offers a wide range of communication products for broadband, satellite and broadcast applications. With several International technology patents covering the next generation of intelligent, Open communication platforms combined with unique 'chips-to-systems' expertise, Saankhya's solutions include systems for rural broadband connectivity, satellite communications modems for IoT applications and multi-standard DTV modulators and demodulators. Saankhya is building transformative solutions for convergence of broadcast and broadband networks. It's Next-Gen product portfolio comprises of 5G Broadcast Radio Heads, Mobile DTV receiver chipsets, Video off-load solutions for telecom and an alternate delivery mechanism for OTT service providers. Solutions under development are AI based Cognitive RAN and ORAN based 5G NR. Saankhya Labs is Headquartered in Bangalore, India. http://www.saankhyalabs.com
SOURCE WhiteSpace Alliance
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