Concerned over possible interference with the reception of its cable set top boxes that may be posed by radio technology operating within TV white spaces, Cisco (News - Alert) Systems, Inc. asked the FCC in a letter issued today for stringent guidelines with regards to the certification of radio devices that broadcast within that spectrum.

 

Cisco is the manufacturer of cable boxes through its Scientific Atlanta subsidiary. It is these devices that Cisco is concerned will be compromised should radio broadcasting in video white spaces go unchecked. To further assist the FCC (News - Alert) in its development of a concrete set of rules, Cisco has offered to share a proposal for a geospatial database that could manage fixed devices, put together by the proponents of IEEE 802.22 technology. It is also offering to share its work on the IEEE (News - Alert) 802.11k Radio Resource Measurement standard, which adds radio measurement by mobiles and base stations so that additional information about hidden nodes can be gathered.

 

The FCC’s final ruling is set to take place this month, but Cisco suggests that the action be postponed in order to give the Commission’s staff further time to examine the issues at hand. Cisco maintains it is not in opposition to this usage of white spaces, so long as existing users of the band are not harmed.

 

After reviewing the record, Cisco also asked the Commission to notch the frequencies used by cable boxes in order to ensure that cable consumers’ service is not degraded by the introduction of low power devices that might otherwise use the lower VHF band in the absence of a TV broadcaster. VHF Channels 3and 4, as well as adjacent Channels 2, 5 and 6 are cited specifically by Cisco.