/ 01.04.2010 12:00AM
White Space Database Manager Proposals Due
WASHINGTON: Proposals to manage the FCC’s white-space
database are due today. The commission first put out a call for a database
manager in late November. The database is intended to prevent interference
between emerging unlicensed devices and TV stations. The unlicensed devices
that will soon operate in unoccupied TV channels will be required to check the
database for where TV stations, BAS operations and other broadcast entities are
using spectrum.
Key Bridge of McLean, Va., has proffered itself as a candidate. The company develops
spectrum-sensing technologies. Another, WSdb, LLC, was started by the David
Nathan Myerson Foundation of Dallas as a database management candidate. Google
executives met with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s staff to discuss database
management. Sprint Nextel and Microsoft representatives also paid visits to the
FCC.
Shared Spectrum Co., of Vienna, Va., threw its hat in the ring. The company has
developed dynamic spectrum-access technology for the military over the last
decade. DSA technology “takes advantage of the empty spectrum capacity by
dynamically adapting to the spectral environment and changing transmission or
reception parameters on the fly.” This, according to Shared Spectrum CEO,
Thomas Stroup, who testified recently on Capitol Hill at a hearing on radio
frequency issues.
Filings from Sennheiser and Shure balked at a study Shared Spectrum Co. did for
Microsoft that assumed a single value for the received power of wireless mics
of -111 dBm and a 130 meter “exclusion zone.”
“Indeed, these parameters are quite conservative,” Microsoft senior technology
policy advisor, Edmond Thomas.
Shure and Sennheiser countered that the receive power of wireless mics varies up
to 40 dB. David Donovan of the Association for Maximum Service Television
deemed the 130-meter protection zone as “somewhat marginal.”
The FCC’s white space database will comprise the RF channel assignments for all
the TV stations and other fixed operations in the country. Unlicensed devices
operating in the TV spectrum will have to ping the database to determine what
frequencies are free in a given location at a given moment.
The commission intends to designate one or more private sector companies to own
and manage the database. The selected candidates will be allowed to charge fees
for “fixed TV band devices and temporary broadcast auxiliary fixed links.”
Comments are due Feb. 3, 2010 and replies, Feb. 18, 2010.
(Image by Holly Northrup)