Dark Fiber and White Spaces

Yann Bona — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:20:35 +0000

from flowtv.org

Shortening digital divides may imply also widening white spaces for open access and use of radio electric spectrum as well as allowing and using the already existing fiber optics networks that lies beneath our feet without having ever noticed them.

Anyway, what are white spaces and dark fibers and why do they matter?

Well, white spaces are unused or empty chunks, segments or channels in the broadcast TV band. With the emergence of DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) and it’s consequent decrease in analogue aerial broadcasting when fully replaced, an expected room for other aerial broadcasters is expected. That part of the spectrum, becoming a white space, could be used as a wifi space and contribute to another open or unlicensed part of the spectrum like ISM bands. As we read from the Open Spectrum Alliance (which we had the chance to meet at ninux day in Rome last month);

“The switchover from analog to digital terrestrial TV has the potential to dramatically increase the amount of spectrum available for innovative technologies. Currently the European and International organizations are studying the implementation of new spectrum management techniques. The opening up of the spectrum at least for secondary use will greatly increase the overall economic and social benefit to the general public. The US regulatory agency, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has set the precedent and has passed an order to allow secondary use of spectrum on the bands between broadcast TV frequencies. The Open Spectrum Alliance strives to make similar forms of spectrum management available in all countries and additional allocation bands.” from here.

In some cases, these white spaces are auctioned by national regulatory agencies, like the CMT in Spain or the FCC in the United States. In a recent, well, not so recent post on Technology Review, we read;

“It’s a totally different paradigm for wireless networking,”"Until now, in wireless networks, you were given a spectrum, and you would share it with everyone else. Everyone was an equal stakeholder. Now, you have this spectrum where there are certain people who are primary users.” (Chandra, 2009) from here.

So, white spaces for aerial broadcasting and dark fiber for terrestrial (underground) fast connectivity…

Dark fiber is; “optical fiber infrastructure that is currently in place but is not being used. Optical fiber conveys information in the form of light pulses so the “dark” means no light pulses are being sent. For example, some electric utilities have installed optical fiber cable where they already have power lines installed in the expectation that they can lease the infrastructure to telephone or cable TV companies or use it to interconnect their own offices. To the extent that these installations are unused, they are described as dark.” from here.

…And is also the title of a book by Geert Lovink; Dark Fiber: Tracking Critical Internet Culture.

Yann Bona.

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Dark Fiber and White Spaces