IEEE, the world's largest professional organization advancing technology for humanity, today announced that the IEEE 802.22™ Working Group, recipient of the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Emerging Technology Award, has completed and published the IEEE 802.22.2™-2012¹ recommended practice for installation and deployment of the IEEE 802.22-2011 standard on Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRANs) and the IEEE 802.22.1^TM-2010 standard.

IEEE 802.22 systems are intended to provide broadband access to wide regional areas globally and bring reliable and secure high-speed communications to under-served and un-served rural communities, which are estimated to include nearly half of the world’s population. IEEE 802.22-2011 is the first IEEE 802^® standard for operation in television white spaces, defined as the available or unoccupied TV channels. It is also the first IEEE standard that focuses on broadband connectivity in rural areas where most vacant TV channels can be found, thus helping to bridge the “digital divide.” The WhiteSpace Alliance™ has adopted IEEE 802.22-2011™ into its Wi-FAR™ specification.

This IEEE standard for WRANs takes advantage of the favorable transmission characteristics of the VHF and UHF TV bands to provide broadband wireless access over a large area. Each WRAN delivers 22 Mbps to 29 Mbps typically over 10 km to 30 km radius, depending upon the country of deployment, without interfering with reception of existing TV broadcast stations.

IEEE 802.22 incorporates advanced cognitive radio capabilities including dynamic spectrum access, incumbent database access and regulatory policies, accurate geolocation techniques, spectrum sensing, spectrum etiquette and coexistence for optimal use of the available spectrum.

IEEE 802.22.2 specifies recommended practice to help the deployment of 802.22 systems in a manner that complies with the regulatory requirements while ensuring that no interference is caused to TV broadcast systems and licensed auxiliary services.

“Publication of the IEEE 802.22.2-2012 standard will help installation and deployment of IEEE 802.22-2011 standards-based WRANs, to bring cost-effective broadband access to rural and remote communities all over the world,” said Dr. Apurva N. Mody, chair of the IEEE 802.22 Wireless Regional Area Networks Working Group.

Additional information on the standard can be found at http://standards.ieee.org/findstds/standard/802.22.2-2012.html. To purchase IEEE 802.22.2, visit the IEEE Standards Store.

Deployment of technology specified by the IEEE 802 family of standards is globally pervasive, driven by the ever-growing needs of networks around the world. New application areas are constantly being considered that might leverage the IEEE 802 family of standards in their networks. To better address the needs of all of these areas, the IEEE 802 family of standards is constantly evolving and expanding. The success of the IEEE 802 family of standards—from its inception through today—has been its fair, open and transparent development process.

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1 _{IEEE 802.22.2™-2012 “Recommended Practice for Information Technology - Telecommunications and information exchange between systems Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRAN) - Specific requirements - Part 22.2: Installation and Deployment of IEEE 802.22 Systems”}