White Spaces Spectrum Bills Introduced

>From WCA: 

Senate White Space Bills Seek To Facilitate Wireless Broadband Deployment

A pair of similar bills introduced Friday in the U.S. Senate seeks to facilitate the development of wireless broadband Internet access by allocating certain areas within the broadcast spectrum that are otherwise unassigned or unused.  The bill introduced by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK) would require the FCC to permit "white spaces" - unused broadcast TV spectrum between 72 MHz and 698 MHz - to be used by unlicensed devices, including wireless broadband.  The American Broadband for Communities Act of 2006 would allow manufacturers to design unlicensed devices to be operated in the white spaces.  The devices would sense their environment and only use portions of the spectrum not being used by broadcasters.  The draft bill exempts frequencies between 608 MHz and 614 MHz from the unlicensed uses.  It directs the FCC craft technical requirement for unlicensed devices to protect broadcast stations and urges the Commission to establish an interference complaint resolution process for broadcasters.  http://stevens.senate.gov/pr_detailed.cfm?prid=333%20%20.  Separately, Senator George Allen (R-VA) introduced the Wireless Innovation Act of 2006 that specifically requires the FCC to permit unlicensed use of unassigned broadcast spectrum between 54 MHz and 698 MHz within 180 days of enactment.  The bill is co-sponsored by Senators John Kerry (D-MA), John Sununu (R-NH) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA).  http://allen.senate.gov/?c=record&t=3&Record_ID=5531

Comments: Despite the prior edicts to open up White Spaces spectrum, this looks likely to find tough going for passage due to pressure from encumbents and the prospects for licensing the spectrum rather than offering it up as license-excempt.  Not a bad time to contact your congressmen to request passage. We shall see.  

The usage of this spectrum is likely to take advantage of developments spearheaded under IEEE 802.22, RAN (rural area network) cognitive radio standard.  The 802.22 group has more recently been trending to adopt similar WiMAX OFDMA PHY as found in 802.16-2005 while using a MAC based on 802.16-2004, the 'fixed' version of 802.16/WiMAX.  Other proposals for MAC and PHY have varied from unique developments which would require new families of chip sets and other components.  By basic alignment with 802.16, 802.22 RAN can likely take advantage of the same or modified versions of the same chips used for WiMAX.



                       Telecomm Research and Analysis 
                  
                        Robert (Bob) Syputa
                        Senior Analyst  Maravedis Research, WiMAXPro
                        4504 NE 203 Place
                        Lake Forest Park (Seattle)
                        WA, 98155  
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