DEVELOPMENT OF A SPECTRUM SENSING PROTOCOL FOR TELEVISION WHITE SPACE IDENTIFICATION IN ENUGU, NIGERIA

Subject Area: Communication Engineering

Due to the growing need for wireless broadband, there is a continued increased request for dynamic spectrum access of TV White Spaces (TVWS) by most cellular users. The risk of high interference among Secondary Users (SUs) beyond the preferred threshold and detrimental interference to Primary Users (PUs) will be experienced when there is a high density of SUs in a TVWS network. This call for the optimization of resource allocation to lessen the level of interference among SUs, thus, protecting the PUs against detrimental interference. In this paper, a novel spectrum sensing protocol was developed for television white space identification in Enugu and its environs. The spectrum sensing algorithm was chosen over the geo-location database technique for obvious reasons as was given in the work. Performance factors of the spectrum sensing method were outlined. RF explorer was used to monitor and detect energy strength at various locations. Several path loss models were outlined after which the Longley-Rice Irregular Terrain Model was used for the physical environmental evaluation. Point measurements were taken and other subsequent computations were carried out using the spectrum measurement setup. Results show that the identification of TVWS application in a particular location within the Enugu metropolis can be determined, also a good spectrum sensor can be developed for use in Enugu, Nigeria as well as in other similar cities given the same method without interference effect with the legitimately licensed Primary users.