802.22 - aimed at creating long distance rural broadband out of digital divident

[Bern]

Hi all, though this was an interesting development http://www.gizmag.com/ieee-80222-sta...mpleted/19417/

The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) has announced the completion of the IEEE 802.22 wireless network standard, which has been in the works since 2004. Utilizing unused white spaces between channels in the TV frequency spectrum, the 802.22 standard will serve Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRANs), which are meant to bring broadband access to sparsely populated rural areas, as well as to developing countries.

Wide Regional Area Networks utilizing the IEEE 802.22 standard will operate within 100 kilometers (62 miles) range from the base station, resulting in a coverage area of around 31,080 square kilometers (12,000 square miles).

The maximum data transmission speed is up to 22 Mbps per channel "without interfering with reception of existing TV broadcast stations." The standard is said to be operating in the VHF/UHF TV broadcast bands in frequencies between 54 MHz to 698 MHz in the United States.

More information can be found at the IEEE 802.22 Working Group's website, or in a PDF outlining the details of the standard.

Now if we could get that shared model going between the mobile operators for this we could get MUCH better broadband penetration in to much of South Africa. Now we just need Broadband Infraco, Fibreco and the rest to ensure many POPs along their routes for backhaul capacity as well as putting fibre in to other parts of the country - ideally to any town that has more than 10 000 inhabitants to start with.

[Bern]

I forgot to note the Meraka Institute ([CSIR) are working in conjuction to establish this

Technologies will initially include:
 Wireless Mesh Networks: Wide Area
 Voice over IP (VoIP) in Wireless Wide Area Networks
 IPv6
 802.11, 802.16 and 802.22 protocol families
 Cognitive wireless networks
 Smart antenna systems

exert taken from http://www.wireless-world-research.o...y_Speech_9.pdf

Now it the Dept Communications could just get their act together around this spectrum...

[UnUnOctium]

I forgot to note the Meraka Institute ([CSIR) are working in conjuction to establish this


exert taken from http://www.wireless-world-research.o...y_Speech_9.pdf

Now it the Dept Communications could just get their act together around this spectrum...

LOL, Meraka has practically no research coming out of it in Cognitive networks. They're still stuck in mesh & ad-hoc networks.

[SteveO]

..using OFDMA so no cell breathing, but with such high range interference could be a pain. sounds interesting.

[Bern]

LOL, Meraka has practically no research coming out of it in Cognitive networks. They're still stuck in mesh & ad-hoc networks.

That explains why I couldn't find anything other than how to set up a 802.11g mesh network... I can't seem to find any stuff on 802.22 and 802.16 which is what I am really interested in as this allows for some serious coverage per base station. I didn't even realise they were trying to do cognitive networks!!

I take it you had some experience with them, care to share at all?

[UnUnOctium]

That explains why I couldn't find anything other than how to set up a 802.11g mesh network... I can't seem to find any stuff on 802.22 and 802.16 which is what I am really interested in as this allows for some serious coverage per base station. I didn't even realise they were trying to do cognitive networks!!

I take it you had some experience with them, care to share at all?

802.16 is WiMAX. They did have a DSA draft of it (can't remember the exact letter) but it's still in its infancy and not proving to be much popular either.

I haven't worked for Meraka (wrong skin colour ) but I have a pretty good picture of the research efforts in cognitive radios in SA [in fact, look up 'cognitive radio south africa' and I'm one of the first SA-based names you see]. Depending on what information you want, if you want heavy technical, lookup the working groups' sites & google scholar (IEEE Xplore is where the real deal is but subscription is very heavy for the average person). If you want a general overview a bit of googling here and there will do. Feel free to direct any advanced questions this way.

[Ludjer]

my girlfriends father is a researcher in meraka i could ask him when i see him next since i am studding into the electronic field.
But so far i must say. I also have a IEEE Xplore student subscription i think its still active from when i registered maby ill see what i can dig up but ye this research is really interesting hope we are clever and actualy get something like this up and running. would be nice if they offer it as a free service in rural areas and limit what websites they can access like they can access wikipedia and other research sites but nothing else and maby a email solutions would help make South Afirca that much more computer literate.

[Bern]

my girlfriends father is a researcher in meraka i could ask him when i see him next since i am studding into the electronic field.
But so far i must say. I also have a IEEE Xplore student subscription i think its still active from when i registered maby ill see what i can dig up but ye this research is really interesting hope we are clever and actualy get something like this up and running. would be nice if they offer it as a free service in rural areas and limit what websites they can access like they can access wikipedia and other research sites but nothing else and maby a email solutions would help make South Afirca that much more computer literate.

That would be awesome!! I agree, make some sites free to access as well as email (maybe just need to limit attachement and cc list size to stop chain mail spam...). Any info would be great from the research perspective, understanding what they are trying to achieve and how would seriously help others trying to get involved.