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By Mark Henricks
When U.S. television broadcasters switched from analog to digital technology in February 2009, millions of obsolete TV sets headed for landfills. But what digital TV took from garbage dumps it may be giving back to wireless data networks in the form of added elbow room. And the first proof of that is up and running in California.
Google, Spectrum Bridge, and the Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative & Telecommunications Utility in Plumas-Sierra County, Calif. have teamed up to employ some of the bandwidth freed up by the digital switch for a smart grid system that channels most of its data traffic through the unused TV broadcasting spectrum. The system in a rural area of the Sierra Nevada Mountains was built over the past several months and is one of a couple of similar pilots underway.
The white space appeals to networks because it offers faster data rates than Wi-Fi. It’s reliable, can cover longer distances and is able to penetrate many barriers to conventional Wi-Fi. The combination of traits made it especially suitable to an application like Plumas-Sierra’s, where rugged terrain and long distances reduced the edge of an established technology like Wi-Fi.
IDC Government Insights analyst Shawn McCarthy said in a blog entry that TV white space could work well for city-wide networks tying together sensors for traffic and parking controls. Existing solutions employing data feeds to cellphone modems cost too much, he said.
TV white space has attracted attention for years, according to CNET blogger Candace Lombardi. Heavyweights including Google, Dell, Microsoft and Motorola have been asking the Federal Communications Commission to give them a crack at using the unused real estate. And in November 2008 the FCC said it would make from 300MHz to 400MHz of white space bandwidth available.
Other proposals have been for entirely new kinds of broadband wireless services, but this approach is the first one up and running. It employs a hybrid design, relying on Wi-Fi where circumstances favor that technology and dialing up white space when Wi-Fi falls short.
Avoiding interference is a prime concern, and that’s a piece of the puzzle that Spectrum Bridge was handed. The company’s technology dynamically assigns to white space devices frequencies that won’t interfere with TV broadcasts, as well as other protected TV band users. The system adapts in real time to avoid interference with new broadcasts, the company said.
Google contributed its PowerMeter monitoring tool, which is designed to let consumers tap the Web for real-time energy use data, as well as enabling them to remotely control smart appliances.
No matter how well-suited the TV broadcast system is to rural electric cooperative monitor networks, it seems unlikely that this will be the ultimate use for all this newly freed-up real estate in the world’s most valuable and thoroughly regulated market. What could be next? To find out what’s happening with white space, keep your eyes on this space.
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