Bright Future for TV Whitespace
/On the 12th of February 2015 Ofcom announced the introduction of TV Whitespaces (TVWS) in the UK.
At Love Hz we’ve been working with Nominet UK on a pilot since August 2014 and we’ve successfully run trials and passed Ofcom tests using our Adaptrum equipment. It’s been a learning process for most involved, luckily with some precedents set by other countries such as the US.
The application we demonstrated is the Oxford Flood Network (see case study) where we’re using TV Whitespace to connect a rural location for sensor backhaul to detect water levels and flooding.
I’m pleased to say the Adaptrum radio hardware has been steady, performing at around 13Mbps non-line-of-sight through several rows of houses, many trees and a railway line. As equipment reduces in size and cost we expect the suitable applications to widen, but for now it’s ideal for a site which only has mains power, but requires CCTV, sensor backhaul, or even broadband.
Nominet’s TVWS Database has been developed around the trials and shows that UK talent can produce a database of high complexity and sufficient reliability to trust it to national infrastructure.
As we explore the licensing framework proposed by Ofcom we’ll have more to say on our future plans. If your organisation has plans to implement TVWS or would like to know more about the technology then please get in touch.
