InterDigital and Ittiam address Wi-Fi network congestion by harvesting TV white space and other under-utilized frequency bands

BANGALORE, INDIA: InterDigital Inc. announced a collaboration with Ittiam Systems Pvt Ltd. Together, the companies have developed a system to extend Wi-Fi technology into TV White Space (TVWS) and other underutilized frequency bands.

Integrated Dynamic Spectrum Management technology harvests TVWS and other available frequency channels to increase the data throughput of Wi-Fi devices, addressing the congestion of heavily-used unlicensed bands and the ever-growing demand for wireless bandwidth. The system will be featured at the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, February 27 through March 1, 2012.

InterDigital is a leader in the development and standardization of Dynamic Spectrum Management technologies that enable Wi-Fi, LTE and other wireless communications over TVWS and other under-utilized frequency bands. The technologies can be integrated into wireless terminal devices or infrastructure platforms (e.g., access points, pico/femto/ metro base stations, home gateways, set top boxes. etc.) to provide additional wireless broadband capacity when traditional networks are saturated.

Ittiam is a leading provider of Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) technology with single stream and MIMO solutions that power a range of products. The Ittiam MWLAN platform provides the Wi-Fi MAC and Physical Layer for InterDigital’s Dynamic Spectrum Management demonstration that includes:
• Allocation and aggregation of contiguous and non-contiguous frequency channels across licensed, unlicensed and TVWS.
• Database and sensing-assisted spectrum allocation.
• Extension of legacy systems such as Wi-Fi and cellular into under-utilized frequency bands.

“It is an honor for Ittiam to be associated with co-creating advanced Wi-Fi solutions with a wireless technology leader like InterDigital. Ittiam invested in the Wi-Fi Silicon IP over a decade ago with full understanding that all consumer devices will one day get to the ‘always connected’ mode using Wi-Fi”, said Ravishankar Ganesan, Ittiam VP and head of SoC IP Business Unit. “Embedded into the end products of our SOC and system customers, Ittiam IP has already shipped in tens of millions of units.”

“Intelligent harvesting of under-utilized spectrum is a key approach towards solving the bandwidth crunch in wireless networks. InterDigital has led the way in this space, developing a complete system solution that enables legacy Wi-Fi systems to leverage underused frequency bands,” commented James J. Nolan, executive VP, Research and Development at InterDigital. “Ittiam’s Wi-Fi technology, extended to operate and aggregate channels in TV White Space bands, is an important component of our solution.”