Future Trends in Application Development

 1.  Wireless Broadband Network Solution  for Remote Regions

In the UK,  for example, BT estimated that 15% of UK residents (approximately 2.75 million households) could not have broadband access (over 2Mbit/s). By utilizing TV White Space, the residential broadband access coverage can be increased around 25% (or 687,000 households), or as high as one million households in practice. Furthermore, approximate 30% of  EU households are also with poor broadband connection. Broadband infrastructure in remote regions has always been a problem for governments and  telecommunication companies to solve. Nevertheless, the rollout and operating costs for solutions based on fixed line connection (FTTx, xDSL, Cable Modem etc.) or wireless access (e.g. 3G/4G, WiMAX and Wi-Fi) were all too high to be profitable. Most operators are reluctant to providebroadband service in remote regions without governmentsubsidies.

2.  Internet of things (IoT) Applications

 IoT has been one of the key areas of development in the ICT industry in recent years. The future development of IoT applications such as smart transportation, tele-medicine, smart grid, and surveillance and terminal transmission technologies such as ZigBee and RFID have all attracted strong commercial interest. Most of the feedback mechanisms for collected data require the wired or wireless networks operated by  telecommunication companies, however. Unless the service is promoted by the  telecommunication company itself, the cost of leasing the feedback network becomes a very heavy burden. The roll out of White Space networks may effectively reduce the cost of network leased and offer greater flexibility in actual use.

3. Emergency Disaster Communications

 When the March 11 earthquake disrupted most communications networks in Japan, the critical wide coverage of TV spectrum could keep residents in the disaster area continually informed through the 1-seg mobile TV system. In the past,broadcast TV channels used for emergency disaster notification systems emphasized one-way dissemination of information. If the system can incorporate the bi-directional data transfer of White Space, a transmission platform could be quickly set up at disaster sites to accelerate the flow of disaster information and the process of disaster response.

4. Integrated Applications for Heterogeneous Broadcast/Mobile Networks

Most governments plan to assign their recovered analog TV spectrum to emerging services such as digital TV, next-generation mobile communications and mobile TV. The existence of White Space opens up new development possibilities for broadcasting, mobile and even emerging service providers such as Femtocell data offloading, broadcast TV feedback, broadcasting/mobile multimedia services, mobile advertising, electronic signage and mobile commerce. For example, physical stores can use White Space to broadcast their advertisements and promotions to all kinds of mobile devices and boost their marketing effects. Advertisers canal so lower their operating costs by using White Space to transmit updates in real-time to electronic signage. These applications may not be considered innovative and have all been proposed before. However, the use of White Space and related technologies provide vendors with a more flexible and cost-effective solution that should lead to a more profit-able business model.

References:
1. "IEEE 802.22 Standard Approved for White Space Development", Hsien-Tang Ko, Chien-Hsun Lee, and Nan-Shiun Chu
2. "IEEE 802.22 Standard Finalized, White Space Internet Gets Closer", - http://news.softpedia.com/news/IEEE-802-22-Standard-Finalized-Whitespace-Internet-Gets-Closer-213778.shtml