Some Initial Results and Observations from a Series of Trials within the Ofcom TV White Spaces Pilot

IEEE Trans. Cogn. Commun. Netw.

2016

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Abstract-A few steps from Shakespeare's spiritual home The Globe Theatre in London, the UK regulator Ofcom is formulating its own well-crafted play based on TV White Spaces (TVWS). Such work comfortably fits into the Shakespearean analogy of "some achieve white space" through implementation of clever twists to make white space available while not causing harmful interference to incumbents, noting that the UK is extremely busy in terms of spectrum usage. This paper reports on some of the work of by our trial within the Ofcom TV White Spaces Pilot, building key observations on beneficial usage scenarios for TVWS through link testing examples. It also particularly investigates performance of TVWS in terms of availability and capacity, through these scenarios and more generally, strongly focusing on aggregation of TVWS resources.A number of key observations result from this paper, some of which we highlight here. First, in the UK, and in Europe in general where local DTT deployment characteristics and landscapes are similar to the UK, TVWS has most benefit potential in below-rooftop receiver and indoor deployments. This is even more so if local white space device (WSD) deployment is extensive. Given this, we define and assess key baseline scenarios that we term as "mobile broadband downlink" and "indoor broadband provisioning" (akin to Wi-Fi or small cells in TVWS). We also argue comparison with other scenarios/topologies through parameter changes. We further demonstrate the strength of TVWS for the indoor case through link performance tests.A second key observation is that good TVWS availability is achieved through the sophisticated regulatory approach of Ofcom, noting that the same approach to TVWS is harmonized across Europe through the ETSI EN 301 598 standard. However, this is affected by scenario: High power, high transmitter (e.g., >30 m above ground level) scenarios have a particularly reduced and variable availability. High capacities are achieved by aggregating TVWS channels, especially if non-contiguous aggregation is supported. Moreover, profound implications for WSD RF design are derived based on such results, particularly under contiguous aggregation or channel bonding.A third key observation is that TVWS yields significant future potential, despite headwinds such as the WRC 2015 decision to allocate 694-790 MHz to mobile broadband on a coprimary basis in ITU Region 1, which was nevertheless expected.

Section: IImentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: IImentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Coexistence With Primary Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Some Are Born With White Space, <italic>Some Achieve White Space</italic>, and Some Have White Space Thrust Upon Them

IEEE Trans. Cogn. Commun. Netw.

2016

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“…IN TV WHITE SPACE King's College London has led a major consortium participating as a trial within the Ofcom TV White Spaces Pilot, a pioneering regulatory-driven test of TVWS technologies in the UK, based on the UK/EU database-based framework for TVWS [5]. The purpose of this trial has been to demonstrate the viability and performance of TVWS and the underlying supporting framework, before the framework and TVWS technologies are brought to the commercial/market stage.…”

Section: Evaluation Of the Concept And Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtualized sub-GHz transmission paired with mobile access for the Tactile Internet

2016 23rd International Conference on Telecommunications (ICT)

Wong

Friderikos

et al. 2016

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Abstract-The Tactile Internet has highly challenging technical requirements. For example, the end-to-end latency for the sensation of touch to be realistically conveyed to the end-user via communications, for the purpose of that end-user implementing control actions in response to that touch, must be less than 1 ms. This is equivalent to only 300 km propagation at the speed of light. Such constraints mean that many of the conventional approaches to communications, e.g., higher-layer retransmissions for reliability and congestion control, and even link-level retransmissions for reliability, can not apply. In this paper, we propose a novel solution for combining licensed access for reliability and control, with virtualized low-frequency sub-GHz access for good coverage and low latency, also removing receive-acknowledgement based reliability and congestion control mechanisms. Through the removal of these reliability/retransmission mechanisms, and by achieving a more direct path to the receivers through virtualization and better coverage maximizing (wireless) routing options, or even transmitting directly, this proposed solution minimizes latency and jitter while still being able to achieve the extremely challenging requirement for reliability of the Tactile Internet. We argue the benefits of our solution with reference to a major trial within the Ofcom TV White Spaces Pilot in the UK, as one readily-available means for such sub-GHz transmission. We also provide the example of such a realization as a viable means of achieving remote surgical operations across the London, UK area, with the surgeon(s) being physically located in only one or a small number of London hospitals.

“…These cover a number of radio interfaces, both proprietary, and adhering to standards such as IEEE 802.11af and 3GPP LTE (the latter with extensions for TVWS). More information on these devices is available in [7], [8]. However, for the purpose of this paper, the vast majority of our work is done using Carlson RuralConnect WSDs [9], as well as an implementation of the logical control aspect of a WSD (including communication with the Ofcom weblisting of GLDBs, and communication with the Fairspectrum GLDB) prepared by King's College London and providing a part of the implementation of the Eurecom ExpressMIMO2 software radios to operate as WSDs [10].…”

Section: Tv White Space Devices Deployment Locations and Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

To white space or not to White Space: That is the trial within the Ofcom TV White Spaces pilot

2015 IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN)

Ping

Aijaz

et al. 2015

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