Working Group has passed a major milestone in the development of the IEEE P802.22(TM) standard, which aims to use geographically unused TV channels to bridge the “digital divide” between rural and outer-suburban areas and major urban centers. The milestone involves the acceptance of a single, unified proposal derived from the ten proposals originally submitted to the working group. The unified proposal will serve as a baseline for developing the standard.
The future standard is intended to increase the efficiency of spectrum use by enabling the deployment of wireless regional area networks in the "white space" between the coverage areas of over-the-air broadcast VHF/UHF TV stations on a non-interfering basis. This will facilitate the provision of fixed wireless broadband access services within 40 km or more of a transmitter in locales that cannot be served economically by more traditional wireline services, such as DSL and cable modem.
The formal title of the IEEE P802.22 project is "Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRAN)--Specific requirements--Part 22: Cognitive Wireless RAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) specifications: Policies and procedures for operation in the TV Bands." The unified proposal selected will undergo technical and other changes within the working group before the standard is finalized.
“When complete, this standard should open a large broadband market and provide significant economic and societal benefits, both in the U.S. and in developing countries," says Carl R. Stevenson, chair of the IEEE 802.22 Working Group. "It will be especially applicable to sparsely populated areas where wireline service is economically infeasible due to the distance between potential users.
"I'm extremely pleased with the constructive and cooperative participation we’ve had to date in the working group from the TV broadcast community and other stakeholders," he continued. "Other stakeholders include producers of TV sets and equipment such as wireless microphones that operate in the TV bands as low-power licensed stations within the Broadcast Auxiliary Service.”
The creation of a unified proposal involved consolidating the 10 proposals initially presented in November 2005 to two at the beginning of March 2006. The two remaining proposal teams then agreed to merge their offerings into a unified proposal, which now forms the baseline for further development of the IEEE P802.22 standard.
IEEE P802.22 is sponsored by the 802 Local and Metropolitan Standards Committee of the IEEE Computer Society.
Ing. Virgilio RosendoComentary in E-mail : perez@citedi.mx
