TV white space opportunity for cognitive radio networks

Abstract

In wireless communication networks, radio frequency spectrum is the most important and very expensive resource. The TV digital switchover (DSO) will leave a large portion of the TV frequency bands unused, known as TV white space (TVWS). In order to benefit from the digital dividend brought about by the DSO, regulators from the developed countries are promoting license-exempt cognitive radio (CR) access to TVWS. However, there is a need to understand how much TVWS is available in South Africa, and also to study the feasibility of TVWS for CR technology. In this work we present the ongoing research work on TVWS and CR technology within the Wireless Computing and Networking (WCN) research group at the CSIR Meraka.