MICRO MOBILITY: Microsoft Research set up a WiFi-like network on its Redmond, Wash., campus to transmit high-speed data signals over white spaces using a technology the company refers to as "WhiteFi." The company believes that mobile phones, PCs and access points enabled for both WiFi and white spaces could hit in the market in roughly two years.
Image: COURTESY OF MICROSOFT
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Consumer electronics companies got an early Christmas present this year when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided to grant unlicensed smart phones, computers and other wireless devices approval to connect to the Internet via vacant "white space" airwaves. Exactly which Christmas, however, is less clear—consumer electronics–makers wanting to take advantage of broadcast spectrum space abandoned as a result of last year's shift to digital television have much work ahead of them to meet the requirements laid out by the FCC.
In a formal ruling on September 23 the FCC assured broadcasters and incumbent users of the spectrum that they will be protected from interference by new, unlicensed wireless gadgets seeking to use white spaces. In a statement (doc) the agency called its move the "first significant block of spectrum made available for unlicensed use in more than 20 years."
In addition to the requirement that mobile phones, netbooks, tablets and other devices have access to the information needed to determine their position and consult an FCC-approved geographic database listing licensed broadcast spectrum users (in particular, TV stations) in their area, the FCC reserved two vacant UHF channels for licensed wireless microphones and other low-power auxiliary service devices in all areas of the country.
The FCC's decision is a boon for Internet addicts, who can look forward to faster, more reliable wireless connections via the broadcast spectrum. White space access is also a shot in the arm to makers of mobile devices (as well as the operating systems, apps and chips that these gadgets use) who covet the broadcast spectrum's low-frequency waves, which have strong propagation characteristics allowing the signals to reach farther than wi-fi and penetrate walls and other impediments (doc).
Spectral sensing suspended
The FCC eliminated the requirement that wireless devices have built-in spectral sensing capabilities that can detect whether a white space is being used before connecting to the Internet, as long as those devices have geolocation capabilities and access to the FCC-approved white space database (yet to be created). The agency has not ruled out the use of spectral sensing in the future, but it backed away from demanding such technology over concerns that it could not be done accurately at this time and that such a capability would be a serious drain on wireless device batteries.
There has been a swing away from the spectral sensing approach because it was deemed too difficult to do at this time, says Luke D'Arcy, head of cognitive radio at Cambridge Consultants, a company that stands to gain much by the FCC's ruling. Cambridge is developing a product called InCognito, a package of microprocessors, circuit design and software that makers of mobile phones, computers, set-top boxes and wireless base stations can use to enable their devices to find available white spaces by linking up to the free-spectrum database when it becomes available.
The InCognito platform, however, also supports spectral sensing technology, which can detect free spectrum when the database is not available (for example, when the white space device is not connected to the Internet). Part of the FCC's ruling lowers the spectral sensing requirements, making the design of the sensor significantly easier than originally expected, D'Arcy says. If the device does not have to work as hard to detect white space, such searches will be less of a threat to battery life.
WhiteFi
Microsoft chose a different path, feeling "strongly" that a database lookup function was sufficient in lieu of a spectral-sensing capability that could probe white spaces to see if they are being used by an FCC-licensed user at any given time, says Dan Reed, head of Microsoft Research's eXtreme Computing Group. The argument is that, if the database indicates vacant white space in the area of a laptop or mobile phone, that device should be able to connect to the Internet via that white space without interfering with local TV stations or wireless mics.
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8 Comments
Add CommentThe FCC should have done some more homework before allowing this to happen. Magnetism is normal to everything living on the planet, electromagnetism and these frequencies are very very dangerous.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSome pretty basic electrical theory shows what happens when you have very fast frequencies interacting with biologic systems running at 7.8 Hz. The lower frequencies are uninsulated, unprotected electrical signals and interaction with these high frequencies is causing electrical problems. In human tissue induced currents have shown to cause nerve and muscle depolarization. Ask a doctor what happens if nerves don't work?
Bees, pollinators and ecosystems are different frequencies that will be dramatically impacted by these frequencies and they are responsible for our food sources. Wireless is convenient but not safe, as electrical professionals we pull cables with proper protection for the signal as well as the human.
Mr Obama has stated that health costs can bankrupt the US Government, get ready because the health costs will be substantial. Even the wireless industry doesn't want to be responsible for these health costs as the offset would have them bankrupt. Here is a link to a press release on the electrical conflicts. http://www.thermoguy.com/blog/index.php?itemid=45
It is illegal to sell out children and ecosystems for profit. We need to smarten up and do the homework first or we will pay the price.
Aside from the frequencies opened up, with essentially unrestricted unlicensed TV stations potentially operating on every block at the amplitudes of prior regional TV stations, there could be some at least hypothetical potential for dangerous exposures to EM radiation...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf some deviant wished to produce a real ray gun, this might be an opportunity.
Otherwise, this could be a great Christmas gift: a new HiFi Mr. Microphone! You know - for the kids.
I don't get it...the frequency they're talking about is way lower than the existing 2+gigahertz for wi-fi(a,b,g,n)...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisvhf is 30mhz-300mhz...the best though put should be less than 1 tenth the current spectrum...
probably better range but that's it...
Maybe I'm missing something....
As I understand, these are the frequencies that had been used for TV stations for so long before the digital TV conversion last year. It states: "TV white space spectrum is considered prime real estate because its signals travel well, making it ideally suited for mobile wireless devices."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is made clearer in the referenced link to the FCC order document "FCC FREES UP VACANT TV AIRWAVES FOR “SUPER WI-FI” TECHNOLOGIES", which states that the order "requires (low power) wireless microphone users who seek to register in the TV bands databases to certify that they will use all available channels from 7 through 51 prior to requesting registration."
Isn't vacating EM communications the ultimate goal of new technology. Photonic based technology is replacing EM communications, I consider vacating bandwidth ranges like reclaiming industrial space for parks and trees.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs specified in the FCC documents referred to, these EM frequencies are being made generally available with the thought that the can be useful in facilitating mobile communications, particularly mobile Wi-Fi. Providing mobile communications with either optical fiber or directed beam optical (EM) laser transmissions would prove technically challenging.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIMO, 'photonic' transmissions require the emission of EM light waves to propagate through space, even when guided by optical glass fibers: the EM waves are manifested as photonic particles only when they are detected by materially absorbing their momentum.
Photonics cannot replace all EM communications. This much is obvious. Taking down EM background instead of filling up the vacated slots with unnecessary applications is what I was referring to.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe effects of EM background noise on life has always been a research taboo. The few researchers who risked their academic careers doing such research have raised enough alarm to consider downsizing our use of EM bands as a positive step.
The effect of background EM harmonics on life is still unpredictable and has yet to be assessed without censorship and researcher intimidation.
No one would admit new drugs to enter the market without prior testing...
Sorry I misunderstood your earlier comment, and thanks for explaining so well. I generally agree with your concern, especially considering that the unregulated use of this established bandwidth risks a potential explosion of high powered transmitters using off-the shelf component production. While unlikely, it seems possible that we could soon find the energy emission equivalent of a TV station transmitter on every block, delivery van or parking lot bus...
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