Analogue TV Spectrum... Gone...

[VK2CSW]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... 056497.htm

I reckon that just about seals it.....

From the above article:

The CSIRO has invented new wireless internet technology that will give people in remote areas faster broadband by using old analog TV channels.
It is designed to fill the gap in the National Broadband Network (NBN), where some homes and businesses are too remote to be connected to optic fibre.
Although the wireless connection will never reach the same speeds as optic fibre, it will be a dramatic improvement over current wireless technology.
The CSIRO says the technology can reach speeds 100 to 200 times the speed of dial-up internet.
It will soon test the technology in Smithton, in a remote town in north-west Tasmania that is one of the first places in the country being connected to the NBN.
Smithton Mayor Daryl Quilliam says the wireless technology is very important because the optic fibre that is going to be installed in Smithton as part of the NBN will not reach everyone.
"Probably over half the people in our area live in the country and the National Broadband system as we have it now in Smithton is not going to cover the rural area," he said.
"A lot of the job creation and wealth that is created in the rural areas actually comes from not within towns but actually in the country and so to have a fast internet service is going to be extremely important for farmers in general."
The technology is called Ngara, which is an Aboriginal word meaning listen, hear and think.
CSIRO's Dr Ian Oppermann says Ngara works by using old analog TV channels to make a fast connection to the internet.
The CSIRO hopes to eventually combine four analog TV channels and provide a wireless connection speed of 100 megabits per second.
But for the moment it is staying at 12 megabits per second.
Dr Oppermann says that is faster than it sounds, because up to six customers can log on at the same time and get the top speed.
"The person sitting in rural areas can actually become the content generator as opposed to just the content consumer," he said.
"So, whilst it might be email, Facebook and movies [that] download faster, what we're really trying to do is enable people who live in remote and rural areas to generate content, so they contribute to the services economy in the same way that someone sitting in an urban environment [does]," he said.
He says the connection will be so fast that people in remote areas of the country will be able to use the internet to have face-to-face meetings with people in the city.

'Impressive technology'

Technology consultant Robin Simpson says the new wireless network is impressive because it reuses old analog TV frequencies.
"A lot of rural properties already have a TV antenna - it might be sitting on top of a 40-foot pole to get the TV, but if they currently get TV then potentially with this technology they could get high-speed internet as well, using the same antenna," he said.
"It's quite interesting in that almost all of the other technologies that might be proposed for this need new antennas and new base stations - this one doesn't."
RMIT technology lecturer Dr Mark Gregory says the concept is good, but it could be some time before rural Australians get connected.
"It will take quite a few years to actually turn the research into actual products, so I wouldn't expect to see any outcomes in this area over the next three to five years," he said.
The development of Ngara has been funded by the proceeds of another one of the CSIRO's wireless inventions, WiFi.

[VK4GHZ]

Interesting.
Thanks for posting.

The spectrum will probably go to the highest bidder, irrespective of how useful to the public's greater interest their intended use may be.
This is private enterprise we are talking about, and big dollars involved.

If existing analogue TV allocations were to be used however, then I am guessing Channel 0 would not be used for this data delivery.
Due to potential sporadic-E, and other non-local sources of interference, high-speed data would get hammered, and consumers would be unsympathetic to season outages.

Besides, most TV antennas simply don't work that well down at Ch0, being down on gain.
The same could be said for Channel 2 as well.

This may offer some hope to 6M operators, seeking primary status in 50-52MHz.
If the 46-52MHz allocation is unsuitable for high-speed data delivery, it could becomes a spectrum wasteland of nothing, in this new-age digital world.

46MHz is the new 27Mhz!

[VK2GOM]

The article has also hit Sydney Morning Herald, in a typically slightly dumbed-down version. This is all the marketing push.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/techno ... 17e4d.html

73 - Rob VK2GOM / G0MOH

[VK2CSW]

Another thought occured to me.

Given that is to be a peer to peer, a two-way, duplex method, it then means that in the smaller towns where this may be deployed there will be a lot of reasonably wideband RF whizzing around in the 6m space.

I wonder if this will cause as many spurious emissions as other broadband solutions like BPL etc?

[VK2ZRH]

Get the skinny from the horse's mouth, here:
http://www.csiro.au/news/Broadband-comi ... -bush.html

Posted in the interests of getting to the root of the matter.

73, Roger Harrison VK2ZRH

[VK2CSW]

According to CSIRO article bove:
"CSIRO’s 12 Mbps, six-user system works in the space of one television channel, which is seven megahertz (MHz) wide."

So in a small town of say 20 buildings with a mix of home and business connections will require 4 "channels" at 7 MHz each which finishes up at least a 28 MHz band width without allowing for separations, so lets say a total of 35 MHz if they are contiguous. A fair chunk of spectrum.

Then we have to consider overlap of surrounding and hinterland areas and I can easily see a couple of hundred MHz being allocated to this.

[VK2GOM]

...which might make it technically unviable.

Lets hope so or we can kiss 6m good bye!

73 - Rob VK2GOM / G0MOH

[VK4GHZ]

TV channels 6, 7, 8, 9, & 10 ???

[VK2XSO]

This is a dead technology.

Limited bandwidth in an environment which is no better that current satellite technology. (apart from latency)
It does not stand a chance against 4G wireless technology.
Current developments in existing 3G technology are already amazing me. No sooner is one equipment upgrade complete and it's time for another.

SAE, IMS and LTE make for some interesting reading on the subject.
Nothing to worry about. 2m 6m and 0.7m will not be threatened by it. Though 23cm and 13cm might get steam rolled by 4G like 3.5GHz already has.

SAE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Arc ... _Evolution
IMS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Multimedia_Subsystem
LTE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3GPP_Long_Term_Evolution

Not exactly light reading for most people and the white papers should carry a warning not to operate heavy machinery after reading etc.

[VK6ZFG]

As I recall during involvement in TV digital planning TV one of the reasons why channels below CH6 were discounted for use for digital TV was because digital and electrical noise don't go together too well and electrical noise is a problem on the lower channels.

Why did Melbourne Ch 0 (anaogue) change to Ch 10 years ago?

73s

Igor
VK6ZFG

[VK3ZAZ]

TV channels 6, 7, 8, 9, & 10 ???

Doubt it they are in full time digital use all over Victoria.
And Adelaide.
345 is FM spectrum
That leaves 0 and 1 and 2.
Or UHF as they are planning to clean out all TV services below CH55 I am told.