利用UHF频段传输数据信息，这样的超级Wi-Fi你怎么看？

Rice大学的研究人员演示了采用UHF波段（400~700MHz）来传输无线数据的技术。当传输无线数据的时候，并不影响正常电视信号的工作。现在UHF波段的利用率很低，而信号在UHF波段相对于2.4G或5G波段传输距离更远，也更容易绕过障碍物，因此是一种超级Wi-Fi，特别适合作为无线热点在城市铺设。

Rice University engineers have demonstrated the first system that allows wireless data transmissions over UHF channels during active TV broadcasts. If the technology were incorporated into next-generation TVs or smart remotes, it could significantly expand the reach of so-called "super Wi-Fi" networks in urban areas.

"Due to the popularity of cable, satellite and Internet TV, the UHF spectrum is one of the most underutilized portions of the wireless spectrum in the United States," said lead researcher Edward Knightly. "That's a bitter irony because the demand for mobile data services is expected to grow tenfold in the next five years, and the UHF band is perfectly suited for wireless data."

Knightly, professor and department chair of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Rice Wireless Network Group, said the UHF spectrum, which ranges from 400 to 700 megahertz, is often called the "beachfront property" of the wireless spectrum. Unlike the higher frequency signals used for existing Wi-Fi hotspots, UHF signals carry for miles and are not blocked by walls or trees. Because of these advantages, wireless data hotspots that use UHF are often referred to as "super Wi-Fi."

In the U.S., TV broadcasters have been given preferential access to the UHF spectrum for more than 50 years. If no TV broadcaster has laid claim to a UHF channel, the Federal Communications Commission allows secondary users to transmit wireless data on that channel, provided that the transmissions do not interfere with TV broadcasts in any part of the UHF spectrum. The rules governing this secondary access are often referred to as "TV white space" rules in reference to the industry term for used or blank portions of the TV spectrum.

"Unfortunately, in the most densely populated areas of the country, where the need for additional wireless data services is the greatest, the amount of available white space is extremely limited," Knightly said. "In our most recent tests in Houston, one channel is open in parts of the city and none are available in others. This is fairly typical of a large U.S. urban area."

Though most of the UHF band is already taken in U.S. cities, it is largely underutilized. According to a 2014 report by the TV rating company Nielsen, fewer than 10 percent of U.S. households rely on over-the-air broadcasts for TV programming.

To demonstrate that wireless service providers could make use of the UHF spectrum without interfering with TV broadcasters, Knightly and Rice graduate student Xu Zhang developed a technology called "Wi-Fi in Active TV Channels," or WATCH, and received FCC approval to test it at the Rice campus in 2014.