TV White Space / Super Wi Fi for Broadband Wireless AccessWireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) to supply two-way broad- ... advantage compared to traditional Wi-Fi: Rev 1.0

TV White Space / Super Wi-Fi for Broadband Wireless Access

Issue Rev 1.0 Date 2018-09-21

Aviacomm, Inc.

Aviacomm 920 Hillview Ct Suite 230 Milpitas, CA 95035 Sales: [email protected] Web page: www.aviacomm.com

Copyright © Aviacomm Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent of Avia-comm Inc.

Trademarks and Permissions and other Aviacomm trademarks are trademarks of Aviacomm Inc. All other trademarks and trade names mentioned in this document are the property of their respective holders.

Notice The purchased products, services and features are stipulated by the contract made between Aviacomm and the customer. All or part of the products, services and features described in this document may not be within the purchase scope or the usage scope. Unless otherwise specified in the contract, all statements, information, and recommendations in this document are provided "AS IS" without warranties, guarantees or representations of any kind, either express or implied. The information in this document is subject to change without notice. Every effort has been made in the preparation of this document to ensure accuracy of the contents, but all statements, information, and recommendations in this document do not constitute a warranty of any kind, express or implied.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.aviacomm.com

Rev 1.0 Aviacomm Inc. Page 3 2018-09-21


Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary ............................................................................4

2. Overview ...........................................................................................5

2.1 The Economics of Internet Connectivity by TVWS....................... 5

2.2 Regulatory Requirements ............................................................ 6

2.3 Spectrum Details .......................................................................... 6

2.4 Advantages of TVWS / Super Wi-Fi .............................................. 8

3. The Uses of Super Wi-Fi.................................................................... 10

4. Super Wi-Fi Network Deployment .................................................... 11

4.1 Scenario I .................................................................................... 11

4.2 Scenario II ................................................................................... 12

5. Case Example - Rural Internet Access in China ................................... 13

6. Aviacomm Example Reference Modem ADK300 ................................ 14

7. Table of Acronyms and Abbreviations .............................................. 15



TV White Space (TVWS), also called Super Wi-Fi, is the term for TV broadcast channels that are purposefully unused in specific regions to serve as guard bands to prevent TV signal interference. Under newly created and adopted regulatory rules, these TV channels maybe used by Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) to supply two-way broad-band Internet access. Modems that use TVWS spectrum are called TV band devices (TVBD). The benefit of using TVWS spectrum for wireless internet connectivity is multifold:

TVWS modems use free unlicensed spectrum, unlike cellular mo-dems that uses high-cost licensed spectrum

In rural areas, dozens of TV channels are commonly available, ena-bling 100’s of Megabits per second (Mbps) of through-put capacity

Regulatory rules permit systems capable of transmitting signals over many kilometers

In comparison to wireless systems that utilize 2.4/5GHz WiFi unli-censed spectrum, sub-1GHz TVWS signals naturally propagate further and penetrate walls and trees better. These non-line-of-sight properties enable simplified and lower cost deployment.

1. Executive Summary



A study by the Boston Consulting Group concluded that TVWS is the most economical technology for delivering Internet access to rural communities.

“A combination of technologies can substantially reduce the total cost of ex-tending broadband coverage.

TV white space is expected to provide the best approach to reach approximately 80 percent of this underserved rural population.”1

The chart below shows the broad range of communities that could benefit from affordable TVWS-based Internet access.

1 https://blogs.microsoft.com/uploads/2017/07/Rural-Broadband-Strategy-Microsoft-Whitepaper-FINAL-7-10-17.pdf

2.1 The Economics of Internet Connectivity by TVWS

2. Overview

https://blogs.microsoft.com/uploads/2017/07/Rural-Broadband-Strategy-Microsoft-Whitepaper-FINAL-7-10-17.pdf

https://blogs.microsoft.com/uploads/2017/07/Rural-Broadband-Strategy-Microsoft-Whitepaper-FINAL-7-10-17.pdf



2.2 Regulatory Requirements The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA) developed and published model rules that regulatory agencies around the world can use to enable this market. These rules cover the following issues: 2

WISPs use this spectrum on a “shared” secondary-user basis

TVWS Access Points determine TV channel availability by checking a geolocation data base TV band devices must meet transmit spectral mask requirements to

prevent interfering with TV broadcast receivers (called “protected entities”)

2.3 Spectrum Details

Television Broadcast frequency channels were standardized and licensed to broadcasters years ago, assigned in 6, 7, or 8MHz bandwidth incre-ments (depending on the country’s preferred video encoding scheme). The FCC in the United States adopted the NTSC broadcast standard that required 6MHz channels, which is the standard used in much of the Americas. Other countries utilized PAL or SECAM standards that require 7 or 8MHz of spectrum per broadcast channel. TVWS devices use 6, 7, or 8MHz bandwidth channels (or combined chan-nels for higher throughput) over the frequency bands from 470MHz up to about 800MHz. 2 http://dynamicspectrumalliance.org/regulations/

http://dynamicspectrumalliance.org/regulations/



Country Regulation

Status Channel Size

Freq Start (MHz) Freq End (MHz)

Canada Published 6MHz 470

Currently 698MHz, pending on 600MHz

band status

Mozambique Draft 8MHz 470 694

New Zealand unknown 8MHz 470 790

Singapore Active 8MHz 470 806

South Africa Published 8MHz 470 694

United King-dom

Active 8MHz 470 790

United States Active 6MHz 470 614

Colombia Published 6MHz 470 698

Trinidad and Tobago

Published 6 MHz 470 698

South Korea Published 6 MHz 470 698

A summary of allocated TVWS regulation status, channels size, and frequen-cy allocation in various countries is shown in the table below. 3

In densely populated urban areas, most TV broadcast channels are heavily utilized, often with only a few channels available for unlicensed shared use. In contrast, rural areas offer dozens of available TV broadcast channels, ena-bling 100’s of Mbps of Internet capacity.

3Country TVWS status table provided by Nominet.



2.4 Advantages of TVWS / Super Wi-Fi The IEEE defined an industry standard for TVWS called IEEE 802.11af, which is part of the Wi-Fi family. Since 802.11af uses lower frequencies (470 ~ 800 MHz) than the traditional Wi-Fi frequencies (2.5GHz or 5GHz), it achieves much better signal propagation performance. For this reason the 802.11af TVWS standard is also called “Super Wi-Fi”. The diagrams below illustrate Super Wi-Fi’s coverage and propagation advantage compared to traditional Wi-Fi:



The lower frequencies used by Super Wi-Fi enable superior RF non-line-of-sight coverage, as shown in the illustration below.

Fewer Super Wi-Fi Access Points are needed to cover the same geographic area compared to traditional Wi-Fi solutions.

Super Wi-Fi antennas may be located at lower heights, saving on the cost of tall metal towers.



While Super Wi-Fi can be used for “Internet access” like Wi-Fi, although with better coverage, Super Wi-Fi can also be used for many other appli-cations. The illustration below shows examples for other possible uses, such as IoT, smart city, video surveillance, transportation, etc.

The non-line-of-sight performance of Super Wi-Fi makes it uniquely capable of meeting some connectivity requirements, e.g., inside large warehouses or cargo areas, or outside where significant trees or hills are present.

3. The Uses of Super Wi-Fi



4. Super Wi-Fi Network Deployment

4.1 Scenario I

The diagram below shows a typical example of a Super Wi-Fi network plan at a “regional level” which is used primarily as wireless backhaul connections for Wi-Fi “hot spots”.

(This diagram is for illustrative purpose: exact details need to be worked out through wireless network planning by a network operator.)



4.2 Scenario II

The diagram below shows the scenario in which Super Wi-Fi is used for a “direct connection” to home users.



5 Case Example - Rural Internet

Access in China

The real case example shown below is for a TVWS field trial in Shandong and Sichuan, China. The user terminal in this market trial is based on the ADK300 which was developed by Aviacomm’s ecosystem partner, using Aviacomm’s chipset and reference design.



6 Aviacomm Example Reference

Modem ADK300 The ADK300 TVWS / Super Wi-Fi modem in the photos below was developed by Aviacomm’s ecosystem partner, using Aviacomm’s chipset and reference design.

The ADK300 Modem uses Aviacomm’s ARF3018 high-performance RF CMOS Integrated transceiver which was specially designed to meet the high-linearity requirements of TVWS RF systems. The 802.11af baseband processor was de-veloped by an ecosystem partner. The ADK300 coexists amongst other TVWS modems and TV broadcast signals by utilizing vacant channel information provided by a Geo-Location Database through a PAWS (Protocol to Access White-Space Databases) interface.

Item Descriptions

CPU MediaTek MT7628A (MIPS24KEc CPU with 575/580MHz)

External Interfaces Wi-Fi :IEEE 802.11af standards

Supported 1x1 mode with 35.6Mbps PHY rate at 8MHz Channel ; 26.7Mbps

PHY rate at 6MHz and 7MHz Channel

Antenna : support Wi-Fi internal antenna

LAN Ethernet Ports :

1 x 10/100Mbps RJ45 Port

Memory Flash : 16MBytes; DDR2: 64MBytes

PA Wi-Fi : External PA with 20dBm RF Power

Connectors and

Buttons

4x (G) LED activity indicators ; 1x WPS Button; 1x Reset Button

Dimensions Plastic Enclosure: no need.

Environmental Operating Temperature: 0 ~ 40 degree C



7. Table of Acronyms

Acronym and Abbreviation

Full Name

ADK300 Aviacomm Demonstration Kit 300 CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor CPU Central Processing Unit DDR Double Data Rage DSA Dynamic Spectrum Alliance FCC Federal Communications Commission GHz Giga Hertz LAN Local Area Network LED Light Emitting Diode Mbps Mega-bits per second Mbytes Mega-bytes MHz Mega Hertz NTSC National Television Standards Committee PA Power Amplifier PAL Phase Alternating Line PAWS Protocol to Access White-Space Databases PCB Printed Circuit Board SECAM Sequential color with memory TVWS TV White Space UHF Ultra High Frequency U.FL Micro Low-Profile surface-mount coaxial con-

nector WiFi Trademarked phrase that means IEEE 802.11x WISP Wireless Internet Service Provider

Documents

TV White Space / Super Wi Fi for Broadband Wireless AccessWireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) to supply two-way broad- ... advantage compared to traditional Wi-Fi: Rev 1.0