Broadband Wireless Delivery Using an Inside-Out TV White Space Network Architecture

In this paper we investigate the feasibility of wireless broadband delivery using an "inside-out" community network architecture, where residential broadband customers share a portion of their home access point bandwidth for outdoor public use. We use system simulation studies performed for real-life BT FON service scenarios in the UK to investigate the feasibility of a blanket wireless broadband coverage provision in various residential environments using this architecture. It is found that due to interference effects it is in principle not possible to achieve blanket coverage using WiFi access points operating in the 2.4 GHz band, even when there is 100% penetration of access point. Switching to the 5.GHz mitigates interference but does not achieve blanket coverage due to range limitation of this spectral band. Using realistic estimates of TVWS availability in the UK obtained using a geolocation database; we show that by enabling community access point to operate in TV White Spaces, ubiquitous coverage could be achieved in urban environments with less than 20% penetration of access points. Our finding indicates that, at least for data traffic, community networks operating in TV White Space spectrum are a viable and significantly less expensive alternative to the cellular operators' next generation network. Our study also points out to a greater need for interference management techniques in TVWS networks than WiFi networks due to increased RF coverage in TV bands.