New Item Proposal
[Form to be used for proposing a new item for standardization, study or consideration by TSDSI]
[Instructions for filling are given at the end of the Form]
Title:
TV UHF Band Middle Mile Network
SG1
Study Group
Working Group
NIP Name
Supporters:
Supporting Organization
Prof. Abhay Karandikar (IIT Bombay)
Prof. Kiran Kuchi (IIT Hyderabad)
Mr. Prakash R (C-DOT)
Mr. Vinod Kumar (Tejas Networks)
Mr. Satish Jamadagni (Reliance Jio)
Name / Email ID
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Summary <Provide the Summary in the below box.>
The study will focus on the following:
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Characteristics of TV UHF Band
TV White Space Network Concept Description
Services and Requirements of TV White Space Networks
Key logical elements required for the network and their functionality
Interfaces and Interworking protocols
Quality of Service parameters
Decision: SI approved. Assigned to RNES (SG1 WG1)
Description <Provide the Description in the below box.>
As per the BharatNet initiative of Government of India, it plans to connect the 250,000 odd Gram Panchayats
with NOFN. These Gram Panchayats serve about 600,000 odd villages. The Government's plan though
ambitious doesn't mention how the connectivity between the Gram Panchayats and the villages will be
established. These villages are sparsely populated and have irregular landscape. Settlements in rural areas are
often situated kilometers away from nearest location with access to high speed internet. An economic solution
to connect the Gram Panchayats to the surrounding habitat clusters is to establish wireless links between distant
locations. This can be addressed using a mesh based last-mile or middle-mile network.
The unused portions of TV Band spectrum is termed as “White Space”. TV Band utilization in India is, much
different as compared to other countries. Owing to the presence of a single Terrestrial TV Broadcaster
(Doordarshan) in India, much of the TV Band remains unutilized. TV UHF Band between 470-590 MHz has
very good wireless radio propagation characteristics. The TV White Spaces have not been created in India in a
manner similar to USA, UK and other countries.
The proponents therefore propose the study of providing broadband services to rural areas through backhaul in
TV White Space in the UHF Band. The figure below shows the possibility of one such middle-mile mesh
network that can be used for providing connectivity to distant habitat clusters:
The middle mile network may comprise of point-to-point links, multi hop-to-point links or a multi hope wireless
mesh network that is capable of providing coverage between one and five kilometers of radius to enable
seamless connectivity from the access network to a backhaul point such as the NOFN node. Within a particular
region, WiFi can be used as connectivity option and WiFi access points can be connected to a device working
in the TV UHF Band which in turn are connected to NOFN. Thus the reach of NOFN can be extended to remote
village clusters.
Impact <Provide the Impact of NIP in TSDSI in the below box.>
The impact will be two-fold. One, the band that is underutilized because of the presence of a single terrestrial
TV broadcaster transmission can be used effectively. Two, the gap between NOFN and the population staying
in rural areas will be bridged and the connectivity will be able to extend to the village level and not just the
Gram Panchayats.
References <Provide the References in the below box.>
1. OpenPAWS: An Open Source PAWS and UHF TV White Space Database Implementation for India”
Soumik Ghosh, Gaurang Naik, Animesh Kumar, Abhay Karandikar, National Conference on
Communications (NCC) 2015
2. “Quantitative Assessment of TV White Space in India” Gaurang Naik, Sudesh Singhal, Animesh
Kumar, and Abhay Karandikar, National Conference on Communications (NCC) 2014
3. “Putting TV white spaces to work: affordable broadband backhaul in the 470-698MHz band” Infonet
laboratory, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
WP5D/471-E, Technology Aspects. Oct 2013
“Mesh-Network for Rural Broadband Coverage Using TV White Spaces in India”
Talk given at WP5A Seminar on CR Systems and use of White Spaces (invited WP5A seminar at ITU
Geneva). Nov 2013
Urgency <Provide the urgency of the NIP. Select anyone Important/Necessary/Critical/Urgent >
Necessary
Instructions:
1. Title: The title shall be specific and indicate the item clearly
2. Study Group: Mention the Study Group that you think is relevant for the item proposed. The list of existing
Study Groups is available at TSDSI website. The field can be left blank if you are unsure of the appropriate SG.
The SG will be assigned by the secretariat after consulting the SG chairs.
3. Work Group: Mention the Work Group that you think is relevant for the item proposed. The list of existing
Work Groups is available at TSDSI website. The field can be left blank if you are unsure of the appropriate WG.
The WG will be assigned by the secretariat after consulting the SG/WG chairs.
4. The e-mail ids shall be the official email ids with organization domains or ids used while registering as a
member with TSDSI.
5. Urgency shall indicate how important the topic is to be taken up on priority. The broad meanings of the urgency
terms are:
Urgent: There is huge market or regulatory impact if the item is not addressed very soon
Important: There can be market impact or regulatory impact in the near future (order of one or two years) if the
item the item is not addressed
Necessary: The item needs to be addressed though the immediate impact is not noticeable.
Critical: Both Important and urgent.
Urgency level can be given by the proposer. This will be reviewed by the GC/SG and the final urgency level will
be allocated subsequently.
6. The Proposal shall provide the details of the topic to be addressed with emphasis on the
business/market/national need for TSDSI to take it up.
7. One form shall contain only one item.
Where to send:
Please fill in all the details and mail the form to [email protected]. You will get an acknowledgement along with
a NIP Number allocated to the request.