Unlocking the Goldmine: Unleashing the Untapped Potential of TVWS Spectrum
One of the first tools we built when we started WiFrost was the TVWS spectrum availability map. The main reason to build the spectrum map is to help prospective customers identify if there is unlicensed TVWS spectrum available in their proposed/targeted coverage area. The map utility is easy to use and FREE. An individual market can be added using drag and drop functionality. It is also possible to perform a bulk upload if there are tens or hundreds of towers that a customer wants to query.
Go to cloud.wifrost.com to create a free account and use the TVWS spectrum map.
Add a map marker
The marker on the map shows a number, e.g. 23 in the image below. This means that 23 TV channels (each is 6 MHz in the US) or 138 MHz of spectrum between 470–608 MHz is unused, and available.
Available spectrum
We have implemented the FCC TVWS rules and contours to create a map, using publicly available data. The map has resolved a major gap in the customer journey.
Usable spectrum
Based on our vast experience in the TVWS spectrum, we and our customer have previously found that the available spectrum in all cases may not mean that the spectrum is clean. There may be local interference, or TV broadcast signals coming in from hundreds of miles away due to tropospheric ducting. There are a few very good maps that predict ducting. You can imagine that a customer is not thrilled when they go in the field expecting 12 TVWS channels (72 MHz), and only finding 4 channels as clean or usable.
To combat this uncertainty, we created (drumroll please) a “Usability Map”. This map uses terrain and clutter data, TV transmitter parameters, and uses Longley-Rice equation to calculate how far the signal will actually go. We have found our usability data to be very accurate as we have performed field measurements and customer deployments.
An interesting takeaway from looking at the Availability and Usability maps is that the FCC rules show a lot of areas where the TVWS channels are not allowed (or available), but the Usability map shows that we can expect clean or Usable channels there. The image below shows the amount of spectrum that is clean and Usable but not allowed to use (or Available) per the FCC TVWS rules.
Feedback loop using ML/AI
I am a terrible marketer, or I would have used the words AI and ML a few times by now. Coming back to the topic… There are two data points that will actively improve our usability maps, i) spectrum scan data from WiFrost devices ii) tropospheric ducting maps.
All of our devices in the field have built in spectrum scan functionality. As we are deploying more Base Stations and CPEs with our customers, we collect spectrum scan data and feed it back to our Usability Map calculations. The more data we collect, the better our on-ground channel quality predictions are. Not sure if what we do falls in the realm of ML/AI, or plain old data analytics, but regardless, we have a roadmap to start to bring in other unlicensed and shared spectrum availability and prediction data into our cloud platform.
TVWS Maps for other countries
We are often asked if we can replicate the TVWS spectrum availability data for other countries. The answer is YES !!
There are 25 countries where the TVWS rules have been signed into law by the telecommunications regulators.
With accurate TV transmitter information and terrain data as inputs, we are able to generate TVWS spectrum availability and usability maps for any country within minutes.
The US TVWS channel map is free to access and use by creating an account at cloud.wifrost.com. As we create TVWS and other unlicensed spectrum maps for other countries, we will also make them available for free.
Our customers have found this to be a great planning tool to figure out the channel availability for their network plans.
Feature roadmap
Our roadmap for spectrum map will progress in the following manner:
- Short term: TVWS spectrum map for other countries, starting with Canada and Saudi Arabia
- Medium term: RF Planning module, so market/tower queries can be used to build a coverage map.
- Long term: A spectrum map/data layer for other shared, unlicesned and licensed spectrum.
If you would like to work with us to create the map for your country, please contact us:
Umair at wifrost dot com.
