CRFS joins Cambridge TV White Spaces Consortium

22nd July 2011
CRFS, the Cambridge company behind the breakthrough RFeye® receiver for continuous radio spectrum monitoring, has joined the Cambridge TV White Spaces Consortium. The consortium includes some of the UK’s largest technology and media companies and is undertaking technology trials to explore how unused TV spectrum could provide an inexpensive solution to satisfy the escalating wireless connectivity requirements of UK consumers and businesses in towns, cities and rural areas.
CRFS has set up a small network of RFeye® nodes around Cambridge city and will be continuously monitoring the radio spectrum, including the TV white space frequencies, and providing spectrum maps to help measurement activities, which are a key part of the trial. CRFS also plans to demonstrate how live access to a spectrum monitoring system can support interference-free usage of TV White Space.
CRFS Chairman, David Cleevely, commented: “Spectrum is a very valuable strategic resource. As demand for wireless devices continues to grow exponentially, governments around the world are looking at how they can get more out of existing spectrum. TV white space spectrum is particularly valuable as these frequencies provide excellent coverage. At CRFS our vision is of a national live spectrum database based on networks of RFeye® monitoring nodes that would enable dynamic spectrum sharing without problems of interference to existing users. More efficient spectrum usage will be an important economic driver and bring many benefits.”
ENDS

Background
The market for mobile bandwidth that serves phones, laptops, tablets and other smart devices is expected to increase 92 per cent between 2011 and 2015. With the growth in demand for applications such as TV streaming, internet access, voice calling, music services and video downloads, the need for such mobile bandwidth is rapidly outpacing the capacity of today’s wireless networks.
The Cambridge White Spaces Consortium is launching a trial to assess the potential of TV white spaces to deliver cost-efficient broadband access to rural communities, offload wireless data demand in urban centres and open the way for innovative business models. It will explore how mobile devices can tap into unused television channels — TV white spaces — to supplement wireless broadband and cellular networks. The trial is designed to validate that TV white spaces can be used without any impact on traditional broadcast television in the UK, a concept that has already been successfully explored in the US and other European countries.
About CRFS

CRFS developed the world’s first cost-effective, COTS system for continuous remote monitoring, intelligence gathering and surveillance of the radio spectrum. The RFeye® is designed for use in the harshest environments, and operates standalone or in remote distributed networks. It performs like high-end spectrum monitoring systems at a fraction of the cost. Applications include in-place security monitoring for critical installations, rogue transmitter tracking, battlefield communications, spectrum planning and management.

Media contact

Philip Leslie,
CRFS Limited
Building 7200 Cambridge Research Park
Cambridge
CB25 9TL
Telephone: +44 1223 815615
E-mail: pleslie@crfs.com

This release was published on openPR.