Transcript Slide 1

Solving the ‘Spectrum Crisis’:
Paths to Bandwidth Abundance
Open Spectrum and White Spaces Technologies
ICTP – University of Trieste, Italy
March 12, 2014
Michael Calabrese
Director, Wireless Future Program
Open Technology Institute
New America Foundation
[email protected]
Public Interest Spectrum Coalition
Unlicensed Access to Vacant TV Channels was first
advocated in the U.S. by NGOs to facilitate:
 Wireless broadband for rural and unserved areas: Economic
development is increasingly linked to broadband access
 More robust Wi-Fi networks as both a complement (offload)
and alternative (competition) to licensed carrier networks
The U.S. NGO White Space Coalition included:
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Consumer Federation of America
Consumers Union
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
EDUCAUSE (University CTOs)
National Hispanic Media Coalition
Free Press
Public Knowledge
New America Foundation
Native Public Media . . . (and other groups)
The Untethered User:
Internet Everywhere
• Ericsson: Mobile data traffic will grow 12X over
next 5 years (2018)
• Cisco VNI: Projects continued mobile data
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 66%
for 2012 - 2017
• FCC: “The broadband spectrum deficit is likely
to approach 300 MHz by 2014”
• Mobile broadband take-up could double:
 50% smartphone adoption (US/UK)
 20% households own a tablet (US/UK)
Conventional Wisdom:
Spectrum is Scarce
Reality: Government Licenses are Scarce
Reality: Spectrum Bandwidth is
Abundant (80% not in use < 3 GHz)
The Great Disconnect:
Scarcity Amidst Abundance
Two Parallel Paths to Bandwidth Abundance:
1. Short Run: Wi-Fi Offload on Unlicensed
Bands
2. Longer Run: ‘Use it or Share it’ – Dynamic
Spectrum Access to underutilized bands
(both licensed and Government spectrum)
“Spectrum Crisis”?
Why Mobile Carriers Can’t Meet Demand
• Running out of spectrum for exclusive licensing
 All prime spectrum is assigned
 Takes too long and too expensive to clear for auction
• Cell site bottleneck limits spectrum re-use
 Cell sites increasing < 15% / year
 Mobile data demand increasing > 60% / year
• Mobile market competition
 More competing carriers requires more total spectrum
• Unwillingness to invest where returns are positive
but bring down average ARPU/ROI (rural areas)
Wi-Fi to the Rescue:
Offloads Surging Mobile Device Traffic
Wi-Fi offload > 50% of total mobile data in U.S. -- more in Europe
Observed and Projected Mobile Data Offload (EC Study, 8/13)
Cumulative UK, Germany, France, Italy
Nomadic is the New Mobile
• The difference between wireline and
wireless is blurring . . .
• Critical to distinguish two types of
“mobile”:
 Truly mobile (on the go)
 Nomadic (home, work, café, outdoors near a
wire)
“Relatively little smartphone data usage is truly mobile.”
– European Commission study (Aug. 2013)
Mobile device use by location: Two-thirds at home or work (15% on the go)
Nomadic Apps Drive Demand
• Video is driving mobile device traffic –
a majority now (Verizon) and twothirds by 2016 (Cisco)
• > 85% is watched indoors – and even
more near a wired LAN
• Already surveys show 80% of
consumers prefer to connect via Wi-Fi
(cheaper, faster, easier, more reliable)
Preferred Network Access: Wi-Fi or Cellular?
Wi-Fi is a Windfall for Mobile Carriers as Well
• Consumer Federation of America Study: > $20B savings per year
• European Commission: For EU-27, $35B Euros now, $200B/year by 2016
Scarcity to Abundance:
Small Cells and Open Spectrum
• As high-capacity wireline networks become
ubiquitous, mobile devices can transmit data
short distances, at low power, over shared
spectrum, and into less traffic-sensitive wired
networks – replacing the “spectrum crunch”
with bandwidth abundance.
• Wireline ISPs recognize this . . . They are
provisioning dense Wi-Fi hotspot networks and
lobbying for more unlicensed spectrum.
Carrier-Provisioned Wi-Fi Networks
Blanketing Urban Areas Worldwide
• BT Wi-Fi > 5 million hotspots in UK
 500,000 in London
 7 sq. mile WMAN central London
 Part of FON Consortium’s > 8 million hotspots
• Free Mobile (France) > 4 million hotspots
 Built on wireline subs of parent, Iliad
• China Mobile > 2 million
 Projecting 70% offload rates
• U.S. Cable Consortium (5 companies)
 200,000 hotspots (mostly outdoors/urban)
 Comcast: Adopting FON model ~ potential 20 million
hotspots
Needed: More Open Spectrum for
Community Networking and Rural Areas
Location, Location, Location!
TV Band Spectrum (< 1 GHz) is uniquely valuable:
- Larger Coverage Areas
- Lower Infrastructure Costs
- Better In-Building Penetration
Unlicensed Spectrum Enables
Small Business WISPs to Serve
Rural and Other Unserved Areas
WISPs in the U.S.
 Approx 2,000
 Serve approx. 3 million
people in rural, small
town, unserved areas
 Most are small, local
businesses
 Often the only local ISP
 TVWS allows WISPs to
expand coverage of
unserved areas at
affordable prices
TVWS: Cost-Effective Community Networks
Targeting Unserved Rural Areas
In a rural, forested and rugged Maryland
County, wireless backhaul from distant
State fiber to TVWS base station hubs . . .
. . . will connect 3,000 unserved
homes and businesses to > 3 mbps
Wi-Fi service for $30/month.
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AIR.U: University of West Virginia
TV White Space Network Blankets
University tram system with Wi-Fi
Connectivity
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University W. Virginia
Personal Rapid Transit System
White Space Network Extends Public
Wi-Fi Internet Access (Fixed & Mobile)
15,000 Student/Faculty Commuters per day
3.5 miles of track – 5 station platforms
PRT route
identified in
orange
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What’s Next for White space and DSA?
M2M: Sensor Networks, Smart Home, Mobile Payments
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What’s Next for White Space?
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– subtext
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What’s Next for White Space and DSA?
• Text
– subtext
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Extending the Wi-Fi Model:
Use it or Share it
 U.S. National Broadband Plan (2010):
“The FCC should spur further development and deployment of opportunistic
uses across more radio spectrum.” (p. 95)
 Licenses are for exclusive use … not non-use.
 Under Communications Act, unused capacity remains
available to the public.
 Proposal: Identify and open the most underutilized and useful
bands for opportunistic sharing on a secondary basis . . .
 . . . Subject to band-by-band conditions protecting incumbent
uses from interference:
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Transmit power limits
Geographic exclusion zones
Coordination with geolocation database (“connected devices”)
Sensing/DFS
Remote preemption/updating/disabling (“policy radios”)
PCAST: Overarching Recommendations
President’s Council of Advisers on Science and
Technology (PCAST) advised President Obama to:
• Issue an Executive Order stating the USG policy is
to share underutilized Federal spectrum (issued
June 2013)
• Identify 1,000 MHz of Federal spectrum for sharing
with the private sector, starting with the 3550-3700
MHz band (FCC rulemaking opened Dec. 2012)
Create shared-use Spectrum Superhighways:
• 3 tiers of access to Underused Federal Bands
• Expand on TVDB to develop a Spectrum Access
System to enforce band-by-band “rules of the
road” (interference protections)
• Emphasize small cell, low-power, spectrum re-use
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PCAST: 3-Tier Hierarchy of Access
Spectrum Access System
Dynamic Spectrum Access
Spectrumsensing
Input(s)
Secure
band-byband
Database
Input(s)
Frequency
Query
Secure
DSA
Geo-location
Database
Registered
Base Station
Available
Frequency
List
Advantages of Building on
the TV Bands Database
 No permanent assignments, no stranded users
o Any band or channel can be listed for access – then de-listed
 Access to additional bands can be subject to unique
access/operating conditions (e.g., TTLs: time-to-live)
 Preemption, shut down and priority access can
protect primary operations
 Any ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ can be avoided
o A ceiling on the noise floor: At any time/place, access can
be limited or rationed via micro-payments
 Devices can sense and share data on spectrum
environment (improving QoS)
 Dynamic Device Management: SAS can help
manage cooperative sharing (e.g., variable power)
PCAST: Shared Use Spectrum Superhighway
NTIA ‘Fast Track’ Bands: 12 bands identified and prioritized,
950 MHz of which is contiguous (2700 to 3650 MHz)
Source: NTIA, “Second Interim Progress Report on the Ten-Year Plan and Timetable,”
October 17, 2011
What’s Next for White Space
3.5 GHz NPRM:
“Citizens Broadband Service”
FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rule Making:
 FCC: “Modeled on the spectrum access framework proposed in
the PCAST Report.”
 “Three-tiered licensing/interference protection framework”:
o Incumbent Access (Federal primaries)
o Priority Access (50 mhz licensed by rule for “mission critical” indoor use)
o General Authorized Access (opportunistic, but must register in SAS)
 “An SAS incorporating a dynamic database and, potentially,
other mitigation techniques . . . Modeled after TVWS database”
 Priority Access and GAA would be low power, small cell
o Exception: Higher GAA power in non-congested areas (akin to 3650)
What’s Next for White Space
Extending 5 GHz Unlicensed
FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rule Making:
• Spectrum Act of 2012 required an FCC proceeding on
unlicensed use of an additional 195 MHz by Feb. 2013
– Outdoor devices now permitted in 455 MHz (subject to DFS):
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Proposed: 775 MHz contiguous, for indoor and outdoor use
– to support wide-channel, high-capacity 802.11ac standard
THANK YOU!
QUESTIONS?
Contact:
Michael Calabrese
Open Technology Institute
New America Foundation
[email protected]
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