TV white space (TVWS) specialist Adaptrum has announced that it has launched a second-generation TVWS product, targeted for volume production and outdoor deployment.

Enclosed in a sealed and ruggedized aluminum case, the ACRS 2.0 product is weather-proof and EMI free, the company said, and has non-line-of-sight (NLOS) OFDMA technology to reduce the burden of implementation.

TV white spaces, the airwaves once occupied by UHF television signals, are widely seen as an affordable way to provide high-speed Internet to remote areas. The same propagation characteristics that once carried UHF television broadcasts around trees, buildings and hills and into America's living rooms lend themselves well to the delivery of non-line-of-site wireless broadband, making connectivity possible in places previously difficult or prohibitively expensive to reach.

These unused frequencies between licensed television broadcasters were opened by the FCC (News - Alert) in 2010 for unlicensed public use. The decision was accompanied by a spectrum-sharing database scheme meant to track white space usage to minimize interference with both adjacent local TV feeds and other unlicensed uses, such as connectivity inside arenas and other public venues.

ACRS 2.0 is accordingly certified with both the Google (News - Alert) and Iconectiv TVWS databases by the FCC in the United States.

“ACRS 2.0 has the cleanest out-of-band emission in the industry allowing it to coexist interference-free with over-the-air TV broadcast and minimize potential interference between white space devices,” the company said. “Using an innovative TDD OFDMA implementation, ACRS 2.0 achieves best-in-class latency and rate-versus-range performance comparing to any other wireless broadband product on the market.”

As part of the launch, Adaptrum has also announced a Starter Kit Program, with two configurations: The P2P Kit has a TVWS access point and one client, which allows the customer to build a point-to-point broadband link using TV white space. The Starter Kit meanwhile comes with an access point and two clients, so a customer can set up a simple TV white space network. Both are turn-key kits that include all necessary accessories and come with TVWS database access.