White Space update

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: WWWhatsup <joly () punkcast com>
Date: October 27, 2008 7:08:25 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: White Space update


As you may be familiar the NYC Council Tech Committee recently held a
public hearing after the Broadway and TV industries lobbied for a
resolution urging the FCC to withhold approval of White Space Devices
(WSDs)  for broadband access - the concern being that they would
interfere with wireless microphones and DTV transmissions

http://nycbroadband.blogspot.com/2008/09/white-spaces-hearing-webcast.html


The FCC's engineers, after conducting tests, released a report on Oct  
16.

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-08-2243A3.pdf

Reading the FCC engineer's report, it seems far from giving WSDs an
entirely clean bill of heath.

       * Several tests were performed with DTV signals present
       in adjacent channels. These tests showed that in the
       presence of moderate-to-strong signals in a first
       adjacent channel, the detection threshold sensitivity of
       all of the devices was severely impacted. For some of
       the devices, the degradation in the detection
       sensitivity was as much as 60- 70 dB. In some cases, the
       degradation was such that the detection threshold could
       not be measured. This could impact significantly the
       ability of the devices to reliably detect TV signals
       within stations’ service areas.

       * The Microsoft, Philips and I2R devices were tested for
       their ability to sense for the presence of wireless
       microphones (both FM/analog and digital) operating
       within UHF TV channels. With no other signals present,
       the devices were able to detect wireless microphones at
       levels ranging from -103 dBm to -129 dBm depending on
       the type of microphone, and the device. In the presence
       of DTV signals in adjacent channels, the detection
       threshold was degraded such that it affected the ability
       of the devices to reliably detect the microphone
       signals.

However, in summary, it concludes:

       These devices have been developed to demonstrate
       capabilities that might be used in unlicensed low power
       radio transmitting devices that would operate on
       frequencies in the broadcast television bands that are
       unused in each local area. At this juncture, we believe
       that the burden of “proof of concept” has been met. We
       are satisfied that spectrum sensing in combination with
       geo-location and database access techniques can be used
       to authorize equipment today under appropriate technical
       standards and that issues regarding future development
       and approval of any additional devices, including
       devices relying on sensing alone, can be addressed.


On Oct 17 the TV interests filed an 'Emergency Request' asking that  
any vote be delayed
to allow for a 70 day response period to the report

http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520176037

On Oct 20 Rural Broadband interests filed an 'ex parte' letter  
emphasizing that WSDs
should be 1) mobile, and 2) unlicensed.
<http://main.nc.us/whitespaces/files/fcc-letter.html>http://main.nc.us/whitespaces/files/fcc-letter.html

The FCC, as it now stands, will vote on Nov 4
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-286069A1.pdf

Freepress is strongly advocating the public to encourage the FCC to  
stick to its guns
and approve WSDs.
https://secure.freepress.net/site/Advocacy?alertId=285&pg=makeACall



Joly MacFie
212 608 1334
http://isoc-ny.org





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