TV white spaces support health care deployment

A new wireless broadband deployment supporting health care applications in Logan, Ohio, is an example of the type of deployment that may appear more if, as expected, the FCC makes moves next week to free up unused television spectrum, also known as TV white spaces.

The deployment, made possible through an experimental license, uses WiMax equipment from Airspan that was customized to operate in TV white spaces spectrum and is supported by database technology from Spectrum Bridge, a company that has been pioneering the use of white spaces.

“Like a lot of small community hospitals, this one was built many years ago,” said Neeraj Srivastava, vice president of marketing for Spectrum Bridge. “It had wired broadband but didn’t have any wireless in the building because of the construction. They were having trouble getting Wi-Fi working.”

Spectrum Bridge’s solution was to install backbone network connectivity using the WiMax equipment that was connected to Wi-Fi hotspots to provide wireless capability throughout the hospital to support staff, patients and the patients’ visitors. The system also supports security cameras in the parking lot and enables data to be uploaded from emergency medical service trucks from the parking lot. In addition, the county health department is connected to the network.

TV white spaces spectrum has excellent propagation characteristics, making it well suited to penetrating walls, Srivastava said. “The longest link we’ve demonstrated was 4.4 miles,” he said. “In the future, as companies start building production products, it will probably extend that range. Even at four miles, that’s way beyond anything you can ever do with Wi-Fi.”

The FCC next week is expected to open up the TV white spaces spectrum for what might be considered managed, rather than licensed use — a scenario that is made possible by the type of database technology Spectrum Bridge provides. That technology keeps track of which channels within the TV white spaces spectrum are open and assigns open channels to new users. The FCC likely would appoint a database administrator to handle that task.

The plan is that when devices using the spectrum are first deployed, they will communicate automatically over the Internet to the database administrator who will tell the device what channel to use and keep track of which devices have been assigned to which channels in a given area. The database also would be expected to take a device’s power level into consideration in allocating spectrum to it, said Spectrum Bridge chief technology officer Peter Stanforth. Nine companies, including Spectrum Bridge, have submitted proposals to the FCC to be a database provider, Stanforth said.

The Logan, Ohio hospital project is the fourth deployment Spectrum Bridge has made in the U.S. with the goal of testing the technology and concept behind the idea of managed use of TV white spaces spectrum and to alleviating concerns about interference problems. Interference is avoided by using buffer zones, Stanforth said.

Other Spectrum Bridge deployments have tested other possible applications of the spectrum, including support for the smart grids and the concept of a “smart city.” If, as expected, the FCC opens up the spectrum next week, it is expected to have strong appeal to companies like Dell, who view it as a way of getting rid of wires between computers and printers. Other possible markets include wireless carriers operating in rural areas, who may be able to use it for backhaul, as well as utility companies and service providers involved in smart grid deployments.

Srivastava said he also expects wireless ISPs to be very interested in the technology.