White Space Pilot Network in Glasgow (Phase 1)

The Glasgow TVWS Pilot (Phase 1) commenced in March 2014, designing and installing a TVWS demonstrator on the city-centre University of Strathclyde campus. The project was funded by the Scottish Government’s Demonstrating Digital programme with support from EPSRC, Microsoft, 6Harmonics and Spectrum Bridge.

The Phase 1 activities looked to satisfy two broad goals: help Ofcom gather data and information to progress towards defining full white space spectrum regulation and act as a TVWS demonstrator at the forefront of this new proposed approach.

Campus

The network, which spans the entire campus, is a Point-to-Multi-Point (PTMP) network comprising of a centralised base station and four endpoint nodes. Currently, two applications are supported: outdoor Wi-Fi access in one of the garden areas on campus and live video streaming from cameras at the four sites.

Network installation was completed in October 2014, with compliance testing completed by Ofcom in November as part of their pilot activities. The network has also been used to demonstrate the capabilities of TVWS in an urban environment.

To mark the successful launch of the pilot network, a one-day event was held on the 14th of May 2015, in the University’s Technology and Innovation Centre. The pilot event was well attended, with representatives from the Scottish Government, universities, Scottish SME’s, and multi-national organizations including Microsoft, BAE Systems, and Telecom Italia.

For more information on this launch event and the pilot network; please see the event page, which also has the presentation slides from the event.