In my RF Technology column in the Feb. 15 issue of TV Technology, I'll be examining transmission alternatives for "Next Generation Broadcasting." I've listed interoperability with wireless broadband operators as a desirable feature. The "Broadcast Overlay" plan presented by Sinclair includes the capability.

Last week, at the Mobile World Congress 2012, researchers from Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin presented a new method for combining mobile LTE networks.

The LTE spectrum sharing is made possible by intelligent algorithms that control the allocation of radio frequencies in a decentralized way. Dr. Volker Jungnickel, head of Group Wireless Channels and Future Concepts at Fraunhofer, explained, "With our technology, networks can coordinate to provide access to additional radio resources in the network of the partner. With the aid of fixed rules, we can distribute signal processing across networks, so no central control is required."

More technical information, including diagrams showing how the sharing works, is available in the Fraunhofer Research News for February 2012.