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FCC White Space Rules Favor Tech Industry
holy_calamity writes "The FCC has come to a decision on the rules governing devices that make use of the unlicensed wireless spectrum between TV stations, with commissioner Genachowski trumpeting a new era of 'super Wi-Fi.' Most crucially, the FCC dropped the requirement that devices sense TV and wireless microphone signals. Instead, they can geolocate and use an online database to learn which white spaces are available in their area. That makes tech firms happy because it provides a software-centric alternative to developing complex new sensing hardware."
Methinks this requires far more circuitry than sensing TV and Microphone signals.
What about my new router? Does this now need an inbuilt GPS?
The sliver of bandwidth we get with the ISM band is really not very useful in heavy population areas. The shift to 5ghz wifi didn't seem to help as in all the cases I've used it range was borderline useless and N degrades pretty badly. In a spot where G gave me 3 or 4 mbps, N gave me the same or less.
I can't wait for the new wifi standard to use these frequencies. Now if we can get rid of broadcast television altogether and just move to an IPTV solution and be done with it.
...the FCC is actually making some decisions that are starting to be sensible now.
Equal Protection for Black Space!
the longer wave length and smaller channel size means it has longer range but is much worse at carrying a usable data.
http://www.martinsuter.net/blog/2009/02/white-spaces-wifi-on-drugs.html
... free citywide democratic wireless mesh.
The FCC is too intrusive as it is. They can stay the hell out of my code. They can pry my tab key from my cold, dead fingers.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
Geolocation, followed by a lookup in a central server presumably administered by the FCC... So what you're saying is that my device will constantly determine my location and report it to the government. Wow, I'll take fifty of 'em.
I don't see how consulting a database is really going to be effective -- are wireless microphone users licensed for only a single physical location? I figured that bands, public speakers, theater groups, etc that use wireless mics would be moving from location to location with their wireless mic, so it's not clear how a database will tell me whether or not a particular frequency is available or whether it's in use at the bar next door? Or does a venue have to use licensed spectrum for this type of Mic?
I'm assuming that they'll have to build some sort of geolocation into this devices? Otherwise, if I set up my device in my home in Los Angeles (and I tell it I'm in LA) then I take it to my mom's house in San Francisco, how will the device know it's been moved?
Will my device stop working if this database provider is down?
Note specifically the part about "the rules will require devices to be capable of knowing their location and using an online database to find out which channels are active in their area". Seems that presupposes that whitespace devices for all time, or at least until the rules are changed, will need both geolocation ability and WAN connectivity. I seriously doubt that users will ever be allowed to simply plug in the operating location to the device, as that would allow the whole system to be easily circumvented. Requiring geolocation and connectivity is fine for applications embedded in a cell phone or a laptop (which already has these facilities), but standalone devices will have a pretty steep cost burden. Even in the embedded scenario, now we need some way of ensuring that the device gets a GPS fix (how frequently?) and communicates that in some standard way to the whitespace system. Hopefully client devices will be relieved of this burden by virtue of their connection to a known base, but will that restrict the usable range of the system, given that you don't want a client to wander too far from the base? Be interesting to see how all this plays out.
Exactly how much power do i have to pump through my wireless microphone or my guitar hero, or my router to to get it considered as a broadcast device?
-- cynicism is not something I leave to the optimist.
We're a small AV company, 8 employees, and even we have 40-50 wireless mics. We got rid of our old ones and bought new ones that were all in the allegedly safe bands. However, even though we don't have to worry about breaking the law, now we will never really be able to know if the mics will actually work in any given location.
We travel a lot to convention locations around the country. While the databases that the FCC talks about sound nice, in practice they simply do not exist in any meaningful way. There is no one out there asking us to input our frequencies into a DB somewhere, and even if there was, it wouldn't help when we travel.
We will, of course, invest in spectrum analyzers we can take on the road, but even then we won't know if someone powers up after we've done our sweep and settled on frequencies. This is a big problem because if a mic goes out on the CEO of a big company we may have to comp a portion, or all, of a show to keep them happy.
I'm happy to have better wireless communications available, but it won't come without a big cost to us and companies like us.
It was INTEL that insisted on this stupid approach with their version of UWB.
You fucking asshole. On behalf of the millions of people who get shit for internet connectivity now. Just thanks so much for your thoughtful comment. Remove broadcast TV, that means we still get shit for internet, and no TV, and no "IPTV" if your net connection is so shitty all you would see is a "buffering" message, like we get with a two inch youtube screen now.
Fucking urban elitist assholes.
So what do you all think are the prospects for this service? Does it hold out the potential to challenge the wireline carriers like Verizon or Comcast? How about providing specialized services for businesses? Will this be a niche business, or does it hold out the potential to become a major player?
And here I was thinking we were going to have a Python vs. C-family of languages and One True Brace Style flamefest
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Please expound on "complex new sensing hardware." Like a poorly performing TV tuner? Or a crappy microphone receiver? Which of those strikes you as particularly new or complex?
You sound like someone who knows too little to be very functional but speaks too much to be easily ignored. Manager, am I right?
I wonder how detailed their terrain model will be and the accuracy of their predictions for mountainous areas. One link mentioned using terrain data from NASA. Will they pinpoint the location accurately enough using either GPS coordinates or a precise physical address or or a ZIP+4 version of the ZIP code? Will the software know if someone is near the top of a mountain instead of down in a nearby valley?
There is a website which predicts what channels I should be able to receive from where I live. My location is at a typical elevation compared to other nearby addresses. At this location in Arizona, it says that I should be able to receive 1 digital channel and 9 analog channels. I actually get 1 digital channel and only 6 analog channels. However, my one digital channel and two of the analog channels are actually different channels from what was predicted. It does not mention getting NBC and CBS on analog channels.
Presumably, the software and terrain models used for these devices, will give much better predictions. But, I still wonder about the accuracy of unusual locations such as mountaintops.
In case you were wondering, some smaller cities and towns (such as where I live) get their antenna reception from old mountaintop translators which were not required to make the digital transition. I am still watching analog TV from a rabbit ears antenna.
http://whitespaces.msresearch.us/api.html Although just a research service, it answers a few questions raised in the comments thus far: 1) Does it support microphones? Yes; microphone broadcasters presumably will temporarily register their use of bandwidth via a service call. 2) Does it take into account geography? Yes; it supports several geolocation databases, and builds a predictive model of coverage based on the user's position.
"We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
Replacing sensors with a poorly updated database? It almost sounds like they want to nuke everything which is not WiFi based.
For most applications, wired mics are better than
wireless. Sometimes the wire is even a feature.
What would Roger Daltrey do with a wireless mic?