There is growing demand for spectrum that cannot be met without new and more efficient approaches to spectrum use. Professors Jon Peha and Pedro Ferreira of Carnegie Mellon University are examining the technical, economic, and policy issues of cellular television, an unconventional approach to the delivery of over-the-air broadcast television that some believe could free up vast amounts of spectrum for other purposes while fundamentally transforming the television industry. Cellular television includes both single frequency networks (SFNs), and networks using efficient multicast over cellular data services for delivery of broadcast over-the-air television. This project is assessing the potential of cellular television, and its implications for policymakers and regulators. Using models that consider the propagation of wireless signals and realistic demand distributions for video content, researchers are investigating the infrastructure required to efficiently support cellular TV, and the corresponding short and long-term engineering-economics of providing broadcast services with this new approach. They are looking at how these architectures could affect spectrum availability and performance of other wireless systems, such as broadband cellular systems and TV white space devices. Researchers will use data on actual user behavior derived through empirical observation of a cable TV system to develop and assess algorithms that allow even greater spectrum sharing and efficiency by considering the programs that users watch, and how these vary in popularity over time and space. Researchers are also examining a variety of laws and regulations that could affect or be affected by the emergence of cellular TV.
