April 17, 2017 – The WhiteSpace Alliance (WSA), a global industry organization enabling sharing of underutilized spectrum, announced that it has published a test vector format to certify compliance with its TV white space Wi-FAR interoperability specification. The development effort for the format specification was led by AmeriSys, Inc., a founding member of WSA, in conjunction with member Saankyha Labs, a developer of chipsets and radios based upon the Wi-FAR specification. Results were reviewed and approved for certification by Alliance member companies.
White space solutions use available TV band spectrum to deliver wireless broadband services. Wi-FAR, a WSA-developed derivative of the IEEE 802.22 Wireless Regional Area Network standard, is a point-to-multipoint wireless broadband specification. Wi-FAR supports line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight broadband services at distances up to 30 km, enabling deployment of middle- and last-mile solutions to regional, rural and remote areas. TV white space can also support a range of current and emerging infrastructure applications, including machine-to-machine communications, Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Grid deployment, industrial automation and homeland security.
The WSA test vector format addresses Physical (PHY) and Media Access Control (MAC) layer transmission between white space base stations and customer premise equipment. The specification defines a standard, implementation-independent language for test vectors to evaluate interoperability of white space solutions, a key step in ensuring multivendor operation of TV band wireless networks. Test vectors written in this standardized language will enable vendors to converge toward a set of truly interoperable systems through a comprehensive test suite.
In addition, WSA’s format work has resulted in a series of clarifications and updates to the IEEE Std. 802.22-2011 Wi-FAR standard, which is now also approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
The Wi-FAR testing format is available immediately to members of the WhiteSpace Alliance.
