Super Wi-Fi Conference Program

In the U.S. the White Spaces ecosystem is driven by the FCCs spectrum regulation. The concepts promoted and developed by the FCC have spread around the world and have created opportunities for broadband access and innovation. This session will examine the impact of TV incentive auctions and the FCCs future plans for unlicensed spectrum opportunities.

White spaces trials have accelerated around the world and are taking place now. Equipment vendors and database providers are currently working on trials in Europe, Asia, and Africa. New trials are being planned. Trials are focused on larger rollouts which is leading to the growth of orders and commercialization. Learn about the results of the trials, the vendors involved, future trials and the impact on commercialization.

Country by country regulators are examining various methods of implementing White Spaces. Ofcom, the E.U., Industry Canada, the FCC, and others are weighing in. In addition, the IETFs PAWS working group has been working on a single standard. Can White Spaces become as universal as WiFi? Understand how we can achieve WS harmonization to advance the White Spaces opportunity given the effect of Standards IEEE & IETF and Regulatory Agencies all around the world.

The need for off load is greater than the capacity of WiFi and begs the question – what alternatives are there? Does embedding White Space enhance carrier performance on your smartphone or tablet and how would that happen? The Super WiFi concept can support LTEA roadmap and the R1012 standards concerning offload. Qualcomm, Cisco, and others are saying they expect 70%+ traffic to be offloaded to HetNets micro/pico/femto/WiFi down the line. How can white space be deployed to support these hetnets or should it be embedded in your tablet or smartphone?

The FCC created White Spaces as unlicensed but many have called for White Spaces to be lightly licensed. Also, calls have been made for Authorized Shared Access ASA where some service providers have priority over other service providers in the same spectrum. The panel will examine the pitfalls of leaving pure unlicensed behind and moving to lightly licensed. Advocates of the unlicensed scenario, point to the phenomenal success of WiFi, which was demonized for years as unreliable but is now depended on and praised by the largest mobile carriers as supporting the use of the smart phone data needs. Will White Spaces go the way of WiFi or will it be owned by the carriers and lightly licensed?

White Spaces devices are now rolling off the production line. After 3 years, radios are now ready for real time. What technical specifications are being delivered? How many channels can be bonded? What is the performance and throughput available? This session will identify where these radios are being used and when we can expect future improvements. Equipment makers on the panel will be showing and speaking about the latest and greatest radios.

Spectrum sharing is moving to the forefront at the FCC. White Spaces paved the way. Learn about the FCC dockets that address spectrum sharing from this panel of legal experts. You will hear about the TV Incentive Auction proceeding, the status of the auction, the FCCs next action without a full Commission panel and more. The 3.5GHz docket will cover how spectrum sharing be implemented and if mobile carriers will obtain an exclusive license. The 5GHZ docket discussion will discuss status of ITS information transportation system and spectrum sharing. Learn about the NPRMs and the prognostications for the future. Spectrum sharing is here for all spectrum. Learn about the dockets that will lay the foundation for the future.

As the Reverse TV incentive auction gets underway, the buy side of the equation has a lot of unanswered questions. What happens if the repacking of the TV stations does not enable a nationwide build out? What if the Carriers don’t find the marketplace attractive enough to bid? Will the FCC change the nature of the auction if the government has to be part of the buy side? Embedded in the process is the need for Public Safety FirstNet and a way to help the Treasury deal with the Fiscal Cliff. Which greater good will dominate the TV Incentive Auction? This panel debates the value of White Spaces in a postTV Incentive Auction world. Will the newly licensed spectrum, not be built out for years or will it be available to White Spaces devices for use?

In order to make existing wireless technologies cognitive to enable spectrum sharing with cognitive LTE and cognitive IEEE 802.xx technologies, LTE radios can be placed in Small Cells along with WiFi and deployed by even a home owner just like a Femtocell. LTE can work on an unlicensed basis and operates most efficiently in the 468698MHz White Space spectrum. What value then is exclusive licensed spectrum? Where in the product cycle is LTE using unlicensed White Spaces? By using unlicensed White Spaces for FREE will the licensed TV Incentive Auction spectrum drop in value? Why pay for spectrum that is freshly cleared, with no other devices occupying the spectrum like microwave ovens, garage openers, or baby monitors, when the spectrum can be had at no cost? What is the value of licensed quality of service QoS spectrum? 2.4GHz WiFi has proven to have excellent QoS and is used reliably in businesses large and small. In fact, most personal WiFi use is with smartphones which have better QoS on WiFi than on the operators network. No data caps, no minutes, fast, fast downloads. Free is better hear it from the experts and entrepreneurs if you don’t believe it.

White Spaces is an emerging technology leading to twoway radios that can deliver broadband in a spectrum previously dedicated to oneway TV transmitters and receivers television. Learn what the venture community and private investors think about White Space innovators and hear what the big equipment vendors investing in. Find out if investors are holding back and waiting or are full steam ahead.

Competition is nothing new to the technology arena – it’s what breeds innovation and defines new trends. When new ideas reach the point of becoming disruptive, competition heats up to the point of a tech war, which is where cloud computing has taken the industry, with vendors large and small making a play in the cloud, and businesses of all sizes evaluating their options in the cloud. The idea that any computing and communications resources will be delivered on an “asaService” basis from server farms physically located anywhere in the world represents a powerful shift in computing theory. Despite the hype, media attention, and adoption to date, the cloud is still a relatively new technology with many questions still to be answered, including its impact on corporate governance, compliance, business continuity and disaster recovery strategies. Still, the concept of moving sensitive business information and applications into an offpremises environment managed by a third party is profoundly changing how businesses think about, purchase, and manage technology, and how IT groups deliver services – including a sea change in the managed services marketplace.•What do these changes mean?•How will providers and users alike handle concerns over privacy and security?•Which cloud model will dominate the others?•Where does open source fit into the picture?•Does cloud mean the end of local computing completely?The only thing that is certain about the future of the cloud is the battle for supremacy will be fierce. TMC’s Editorial Director Erik Linask will lead a panel of cloud computing leaders to find out what it will dominate the cloud landscape and what the next major shift will be, and who will emerge victorious in this battle.

For businesses, the future is approaching at an increasingly alarming rate. Change and disruption are the “new normal.” The imperative is to adapt or suffer the consequences, which demands thorough evaluation of all business functions—how people and processes interact internally and externally—and an informed assessment and action plan for providing the best tools for ensuring optimal performance. This needs to be done in the context of accelerating technological change that must not just be tracked, but understood, and proactively leveraged to create competitive advantage. Todays reality is that a lack of understanding of rapid technological change, coupled with a culture of adaptability among competitors, will likely imperil you enterprises future. Clearly, informed decisionmaking about technology investments is the path to success in a changing world. This session will discuss five key technologies, built from current supertrends like cloud computing and mobility, that are collectively transforming the tech landscape and forever changing how we conduct business. They are emerging today, but will drive business imperatives in a rapidly arriving tomorrow.

New handsets will be carefully scrutinized by the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology OET to make sure there is not a GPSLightsquared issue in the future. The FCC delivered stringent standards for radios using White Spaces to prevent the radios from interfering with the TV broadcast. The new strict mask standards and channel shifting requirements is finding its way into radios in other bands to prevent interference such as 3.5 and 5.9. When will the industry deliver receivers that are spectrum sensing? What are the power requirements of a spectrum sensing receiver? Are mobile White Spaces handsets around the corner? Can the database handle moving mobile White Spaces handsets operating like a MSC Mobile Switching Center assisting users in seamless voice handoffs?

White Space has the advantage by propagating through buildings, trees, and terrain, making White Space radios ideal for point to multipoint radio solutions such as public safety, water & sewer, and electric smart grid controls. However, can White Spaces deliver the performance to compete with other alternatives? White Space spectrum comes in 6MHz blocks 5MHz when and if the Incentive Auction is completed. In theory, these blocks can be used together in contiguous groups or bonded together in noncontiguous groups delivering up to 6 channels or 36 MHz. Using the full 36 MHz is allowing White Spaces devices to deliver a downlink speed of 72Mbps and uplink speed of 72Mbps, with a duplex speed of over 50Mbps. This panel talks about the performance that White Space equipment vendors are delivering now and in the future and how this will affect your service plans to deliver solutions.

In March 2013, the FCC gave the final go ahead to start the White Spaces race by approving the use of commercial White Spaces deployment nationwide. Now, six months later where is the White Spaces Industry? In this exclusive U.S. White Spaces Industry Report panel, the status of the industry will be discussed. We will have answers to your questions regarding the progress of the White Spaces ecosystem including; how many White Spaces units have been shipped, how many database providers are operating and where are the new commercial deployments? We will look at progress thus far and what we can expect in the year ahead.

Maybe WISP should stand for Wireless Innovators Spectrum Proponents. These companies are not well capitalized but they are the vital core for many areas where the larger carriers are passing through without delivering to local needs. Learn from the WISP experience what is being deployed and how it supports their communities.