WhiteSpace provides a solution to reduce the Digital Divide
The mission of the Whitespace Alliance is to promote the development, deployment and use of
standards based products and services as a means of providing broadband capabilities via WhiteSpace spectrum. By promoting the use of standards, the Alliance will enable companies to
provide broadband connectivity at reasonable cost. The WSA will also act as an enabler of
the emerging white spaces ecosystem by helping to put in place interoperability specifications, conformance,
and compliance testing to make sure that our member stakeholders get the needed information &
collaborations to succeed both in the market place and with regulatory requirements. Interoperability specifications will allow multiple vendors to enter the market and help to reduce the costs for the consumers. WhiteSpace
Alliance will promote the use of IEEE, 3GPP and IETF Standards for use in the WhiteSpaces.
WSA is a registered trademark of the WhiteSpace Alliance, Wi-FAR and WSAConnect are the inter-operability specifications developed by the WhiteSpace Alliance. They are also trademarks of the WhiteSpace Alliance.
WSA Wi-FAR™ Interoperability Specification
Wi-FAR™ is a Trade Mark of the WhiteSpace Alliance.
The WSA Wi-FAR interoperability specification is derived from the IEEE 802.22-2011 Standard on Wireless Regional Area Networks.
Wi-FAR provides Point to Multi-Point and Middle-Mile Broadband Wireless Access for Regional, Rural and Remote Areas under Line
of Sight (LoS) and Non Line of Sight (NLoS) Conditions. The specification uses advanced Spectrum Sharing Technology and ensures
that no harmful interference is caused to the primary services in those bands. Wi-FAR adds Cognitive Radio technology to a simple
and optimized OFDMA waveform (similar to the OFDMA technology used in other broadband standards). Each Wi-FAR cell will provide
22 to 29 Mbps of aggregated throughput per TV Channel. Typical distances covered range from 10 km up to 30 km.
The Wi-FAR inter-operability compliance and testing document is available to the WhiteSpace Alliance members upon request.
Wi-FAR CERTIFIED logo gives consumers confidence that a product will deliver a good user experience and meet industry standards.
Service providers and enterprise IT managers specify Wi-FAR CERTIFIED to reduce support costs and ensure a product has met industry-agreed
requirements.
WSAConnect™ Interoperability Specification
The WSAConnect interoperability specification has been derived from the IETF Protocol to Access White Spaces (PAWS) Standard IETF RFC 7545.
The specification was completed and published to the members in Q1 of 2015. The WSAConnect™ protocol defines an interoperable specification
for information exchange between the WhiteSpace Database (WSDB) and a White Space Device (WSD). The protocol defines a global paradigm shift
to manage the spectrum dynamically and opportunistically. It also provides a flexible mechanism for various regulatory regimes to alter the
rules and policies to access and manage the spectrum. It allows the policies to be changed through databases. The WSAConnect protocol enables
the WSDs to communicate various parameters such as their Antenna Transmit Height, the desired Transmit Power, their Location etc., to the WSDB
in a secure manner. Based on the knowledge of the incumbent users of the spectrum derived from the regulatory repository, the database computes
the protection contour and a list of available channels for the WSD, seeking to use the spectrum. This information is conveyed back to the WSD
over the secure WSAConnect Protocol. The WSD adjusts its parameters based on this information, and starts using the available channel to provide
wireless internet connectivity.
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