Wednesday 22 November, 2017, 15:31 - Broadcasting, Licensed, Pirate/Clandestine
Posted by Administrator
Wireless Waffle previously sang the praises of the boat trips to visit the Ross Revenge, the home of former radio pirate, Radio Caroline. We also noted that they had been awarded a licence to operate a 1 kiloWatt transmitter on 648 kHz in the Suffolk and north Essex area.Posted by Administrator
Well, it seems the engineering bods on the east coast have managed to get it together, and recently test transmissions on 648 kHz were spotted by a number of listeners, such as a DXer in Humberside who posted the video below on YouTube.
Though you may not be able to interpret the waterfall display shown on the video, what you see is the Radio Caroline signal in the middle. The two bright lines either side represent radio stations on the adjacent frequencies (639 and 657 kHz respectively). Normally, for AM broadcasting, each station would be allowed to occupy half of the bandwidth between its assigned frequency and the adjacent channels, meaining that it would extend +/- 4.5 kHz either side of its centre frequency. It is this limitation they gives medium and long wave broadcasting their characteristic 'muddy' sound, as the limitation in spectrum also restricts the amount of audio bandwidth that can be transmitted.
It's therefore notable that the Radio Caroline transmission on 648 kHz extends far closer to the adjacent frequencies than 4.5 kHz. It appears closer to +/- 6.5 kHz wide (or maybe even more). This would allow the station to transmit a wider audio bandwidth and thus sound a little 'brighter' on-air. Such derogations from the norm are not unusual as the medium wave band has become emptier, as there is more space for stations to spread out and sound better.
As an example, the three audio clips below have been filtered with different bandwidths. Just click on the relevant button to hear the difference (note that this doesn't work in all browsers.
Audio Bandwidth | Play |
---|---|
15 kHz, stereo (FM Stereo) | |
6.5 kHz, mono (extended bandwidth AM) | |
4.5 kHz, mono (standard bandwidth AM) |
Given that of the neighbouring frequencies, the nearest stations on 639 kHz are in the Czech Republic and Spain (previously crowned the queen of medium-wave broadcasting) and on 657 kHz in Spain (again) and North Wales, it seems unlikely that the additional bandwidth being used by Radio Caroline will give any problems and we are sure that listeners will enjoy the cleaner, brighter sound that they will have on-air.
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Tuesday 21 November, 2017, 10:27 - Broadcasting, Licensed, Spectrum Management
Posted by Administrator
Digital UK, the organisation responsible for promoting digital terrestrial television in the UK, has recently published a white paper it commissioned from consultants Aetha and Webb Search entitled 'The defragmentation dividend: A more efficient use of the UHF band'. The paper hypothesises that by re-organising the UHF (e.g. sub 1 GHz) spectrum available to mobile operators, it would be possible to use it more efficiently and deliver more service from the same amount of spectrum.Posted by Administrator
The paper identifies the fact that, at present, the 'digital dividend' spectrum (e.g. that which has been released from television broadcasting due to the increased efficiency of digital transmission over its old analogue counterpart), is broken up into a number of fragmented pieces whose usage is not optimum. This is certainly true: the figure below shows the current set of allocations within the frequency range 694 - 960 MHz.
The mobile allocations at present are as follows:
Band | Uplink (MHz) | Downlink (MHz) | Amount (MHz) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
900 MHz | 876-915 | 921-960 | 78 | Including GSM-R |
800 MHz | 832-862 | 791-821 | 60 | |
700 MHz (a) | 703-733 | 758-788 | 60 | FDD |
700 MHz (b) | 738-753 | 15 | TDD or Downlink | |
TOTAL | 213 |
In addition there is approximately 29 MHz set-aside for short-range devices. Thus, of the total of 266 MHz of spectrum between 694 and 960 MHz, 213 MHz (80%) is allocated to mobile services, 29 MHz (11%) for short-range devices leaving 24 MHz (9%) 'empty' (mostly for guard-bands to protect services on adjacent frequencies from interfering with each other). The theory is that by re-arranging the band, it is possible to use all of the small gaps that currently exist between the various mobile allocations (e.g. the 9% that is empty) for more mobile services.
One of the problems of the plans proposed in the report is that although they increase the amount of spectrum for mobile services to up to 250 MHz in their most extreme case, they also reduce the amount available for short-range devices from 29 MHz to just 16 MHz. Whilst you may be thinking, "isn't mobile a better use of spectrum than short-range devices", the fact is that an increasingly wide ecosystem of devices is supported in this spectrum. It includes radiomicrophones and wireless headphones but perhaps even more critically, a growing number of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies that are seen by many as being at the centre of the next stages in the development of the Internet. This includes sensors (e.g. thermostats, light sensors), smart meters (electricity, gas and water) and a wide range of smart-city applications such as transport management. Digital UK's proposed plans involve changing the frequencies used by these devices, which is notoriously difficult. How long, for example, do the keyfobs that unlock your car door last - as long as the vehicle itself in most cases. So clearing a short-range device frequency won't be completed until every device in a band has been replaced by a new one.
The report only pays passing comment to the new 600 MHz mobile band that is being implemented in the USA. In fact, the report seems to suggest that even its most conservative re-organisation option would release so much capacity that there would be no need for the 600 MHz band:
...even the more modest increase of 25% in Option 1 would be similar to the capacity that could be provided by repurposing the 600MHz band...
It makes this claim as a result of an oddity of current mobile technology, in which the amount of spectrum (and capacity) that is available to a mobile user is roughly equally split in the uplink and downlink directions (e.g. to the network from the user, and from the network to the user respectively). If the band was re-purposed as Time Division Duplex (TDD), the share of uplink and downlink capacity can be changed, and the report assumes that 80% of overall capacity would be made available for downlink and 20% for uplink (this is in fact in line with current estimates of the real split of usage). If this is the crux of the argument, then doing nothing at all to actually change the overall amount of mobile capacity available, but changing all of the existing allocations to TDD would approximately yield a 60% 'improvement' in downlink capacity, but this would be to the loss of uplink capacity which would fall by 250%! There is no gain without pain. In addition, TDD operators in adjacent mobile spectrum need to fully synchronise their networks otherwise there needs to be a guard-band between them, reducing the overall efficiency of use and opening up new gaps.
Whilst the report makes a valid argument about whether the future of mobile should be TDD or FDD, it is perhaps no surprise that it chooses this solution to theorise about an improvement in the efficiency of use of UHF spectrum, over and above the use of the new 600 MHz band, whose use would obviously entail the loss of (yet) more spectrum for digital terrestrial television. Sadly for Digital UK, the required pain, in terms of re-organising existing mobile networks, and replacing all short-range devices is sadly never going to counterbalance the gain of a few extra MHz of UHF spectrum.
Sunday 29 October, 2017, 21:19 - Much Ado About Nothing
Posted by Administrator
Posted by Administrator
Just a quick reminder, as Halloween is but 2 dastardly days away, to take a look at our list of One Hundred Halloween Hits.
The list of horrendous hell-bound hits has now easily exceeded a blood-curdling century, but 'one hundred and sixteen and a bit Halloween hits' doesn't have quite the same ghastly ghoulish ring to it, now does it?
If you need a playlist for your All Hallows' Eve party, look no further than this fiendish selection of scary songs. Get ready to be afraider than you've never been before.
And if you don't know your Zombie from your Lil' Devil, or your Highway From Hell from your Road To Hell, this list is for you!
The list of horrendous hell-bound hits has now easily exceeded a blood-curdling century, but 'one hundred and sixteen and a bit Halloween hits' doesn't have quite the same ghastly ghoulish ring to it, now does it?
If you need a playlist for your All Hallows' Eve party, look no further than this fiendish selection of scary songs. Get ready to be afraider than you've never been before.
And if you don't know your Zombie from your Lil' Devil, or your Highway From Hell from your Road To Hell, this list is for you!
Friday 22 September, 2017, 09:12 - 5G, Spectrum Management, Much Ado About Nothing
Posted by Administrator
Whilst much of the world is yet to experience the joy of 4G (LTE) mobile technology, work is ongoing in a variety of prestigious international bodies to put the finishing touches to the specifications for the next generation of mobile technology: 5G. Everybody knows that 4G stands for GGGG, or the stuttering noise you get when buffering a video, but what are the five G's? Simple, it's Girls, Goals, Gambling, Gaming and videos of Grimalkins, which are the cornerstones upon which mobile technologies aim to make their fortune. Posted by Administrator
Slightly more seriously though, oodles is already beginning to be written about what 5G will deliver, which includes a range of features such as:
- Blazing hot, super, ultra, mega-fast broadband internet.
- Ubiquitous, go-everywhere, global, universal coverage (even in those hard to get at areas such as behind the sofa).
- Instantaneous, low-latency, tactile, real-time connectivity.
- Extremely high reliability, such that the network will only be down for 14 seconds per millennium, which together with low-latency mentioned above, is termed Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC).
- Capacity to connect thousands of billions of machines (such as coke vending machines and tumble dryers) known as Massive Machine Type Communication (MTC).
- Power consumption so low that batteries only need re-charging once in every 4 years and base stations can run on one lemon per month.
- World peace and an end to global poverty and disease (this might be made up).
5G is being touted as the 'mobile technology to end all mobile technologies' and as a panacea for all ailments. This miraculous technology will provide what some have termed an 'always sufficient connection' which gives the impression of infinite bandwidth - yes, infinite.
A recent study for the European Commission entitled 'Identification and quantification of key socio-economic data to support strategic planning for the introduction of 5G in Europe' claims that 5G will bring over �110 billion of benefits per year by 2025 across just four industries: automotive, health, transport and utilities (i.e. ignoring the benefits to you or I of coverage behind the sofa). Others, however, have cast doubt on the claims of the 5G community. Professor William Webb has published a book entitled 'The 5G Myth'. In it, he raises a number of concerns about 5G's ability to deliver the enormous range of benefits it is promising, and the associated drive for more radio spectrum for mobile services. Professor Webb's arguments which are largely about the ability or willingness of mobile operators to pay for the necessary investment in 5G includet:
- Mobile subscriber numbers have levelled off and average revenue per user (ARPU) is in gentle decline.
- The 5G vision has not been coupled with a business case. The business reality is that there is no new money.
- The business case for the 'jewel in the crown' of 5G � its millimeter Wave (mmWave) solution � makes little sense.
- Regulators and the ITU should not focus on spectrum for 5G - instead they should ensure that spectrum is available for each component [e.g. broadband, critical communications and IoT].
- Academics should have a stronger links to business departments in universities to ensure that technical breakthroughs are actually valuable.
- Large players (e.g. Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm, Huawei, Cisco and Google) should stop believing that the future is all about Gbit/s data rates.
- Governments should focus on deployment, applications and over-the-top (OTT) services not just spectrum.
Delivering mmWave broadband connectivity in non-line-of-sight environments, such as suburban and urban areas, is extremely problematic over the last quarter mile, because of foliage and solid constructions.
The European Commission believes that 5G is important. Its 5G Action Plan encourages each and every Member State to have a 5G service in at least one city in their country by 2020. Whether this could be delivered using 4.9G to the satisfaction of the Commission is not clear but Ericsson's definition of a 5G subscription in its Mobility Report is:
a device capable of supporting LTE Evolved or NX, connected to a 5G-enabled network, supporting new use cases
This is effectively saying that 4.9G LTE-Advanced-PRO connections would be considered as 5G subscriptions.
The reality is that the real 5G specifications will not be completed until 2020, hence any service delivered before that date can be a 'pre-5G' service at best - or maybe 4.9G. Plans for 5G services in each EU Member state, at the Winter Olympic Games in Korea in 2018 and the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020 can only possibly fall into the pre-5G category as there will be no agreed 5G standard by these dates.
That being said, there was a time when the World was awash with 'pre-N' internet routers, which were built before the relevant standard (IEEE 802.11n) was completed. The issue with such pre-standardisation products is generally one of interoperability. Each manufacture would have had to have implemented a variation of the standard as they thought it would be finally ratified and these may have been different. Thus whilst a pre-N Netgear router may have worked with a pre-N Netgear WiFi dongle, it wasn't guaranteed to work with a TP-Link, Belkin or a Linksys one.
For WiFi, that's probably not such a big problem, not least as if the 'N' connection failed, the router and dongle could fall back to an agreed, but less whizzy standard such as 802.11g and thus whilst the benefits of the newer standard wouldn't be realised, the WiFi would still work.
This may be what happens with the pre-5G mobile networks. Japan, for example, has a number of domestic mobile phone manufacturers (e.g. Sony, Sharp, Panasonic) who could agree to make pre-5G phones to whichever standard the Japanese mobile operators chose to roll-out. But for anyone else visiting the country (e.g. for the 2020 Olympic Games) with phones made by other manufacturers, they would just fall back to 4G and not enjoy the benefits of 5G. In such a way, Japan could claim to be offering a 5G service, but it would not be one that was internationally compatible.
So whilst 5G may yet save the world, it is unlikely to do so by 2020 unless you happen to live in a country which has its own mobile manufacturers, live in one of the minute areas where coverage will exist, happen to be there on a day when the 5G service is actually working, and have bought a locally produced 5G phone (or have been provided with one as a guinea pig to test the service). For the rest of us, its going to be more like 2023 or 2025 before real 5G services begin to make a difference to our daily lives and the (perfectly adequate) 4G service we already enjoy will, for now, have to be largely sufficient (though this doesn't make such a compelling strap-line for mobile operators' marketing departments).