The WhiteSpace Alliance (WSA) ®, a global industry organization enabling sharing of underutilized spectrum that was formed in Dec 2011, this week announced development of its interoperability specification for Wi-FAR networks.
WSA has been formed with the goal of enabling the emerging worldwide WhiteSpace ecosystem to deliver cost-effective broadband solutions, and support products and services that use WhiteSpace spectrum. Wi-FAR, initiated by WSA is derived from the IEEE 802.22 Standard on Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRAN).
According to WSA, the Wi-FAR provides low cost broadband Internet access through dynamic allocation of underutilized TV band spectrum (“whitespace”). The Wi-FAR specification integrates intelligent spectrum management capabilities such as location awareness and database access to identify and utilize TV whitespace spectrum. WSA also said that each Wi-FAR cell will provide 22-29 Mbps of aggregate throughput per TV channel with support for up to 512 devices, with a typical coverage of 10 to 30 km.
This will enable cost-efficient deployment of broadband access and backhaul solutions to regional, rural and remote areas under the line-of-sight and non-line of sight conditions.
“Interoperability is the critical requirement for developing a robust ecosystem of solution providers. This specification, and the testing procedures we are currently developing, will significantly accelerate development and deployment of cost-effective products using whitespace spectrum.”
- Dr. Apurva Mody, Chairman of WhiteSpace Alliance
