Measurement of television white space spectrum in the Central region of Ghana

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Date
NOVEMBER, 2018.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Recent studies on efficient TV frequency spectrum used have proven that TV frequency spectrum in most geographical areas (especially the rural areas) are under utilized. These significant researches have shown that, the amount of frequency spectrum which is under-utilized in the TV bands is much larger than the spectrum available for use by current unlicensed user applications and services. TV White Space is an emerging concept of technology that has emanated while studying the effective utilisation and efficient management of the TV spectrum in various regions of the world. Studies have also shown that the actual unutilized frequency spectrum available varies significantly from one geographical area to another spatially as well as temporally. For this reason, TV white space estimation has been done in countries like the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Europe, and Japan but unfortunately in Ghana, to the best of the authors’ knowledge no such work has been done. This thesis presents the very first effort of estimation of the amount of available TV white spaces in the Central Region of Ghana. In this study, TVWS is used as a tool for effective utilisation and efficient management of frequency spectrum. The very first localized geolocation database for TVWS in Central Region of Ghana is presented. Comparative analysis of Wi-Fi and TVWS networks revealed that Wi-Fi in the absence of strong interference from its environment works better in LoS networks while TVWS works better in the NLoS network mode. Also signal strength tests performed has shown that geographical features of a location and weather elements can have significant effect on the quality of signal strength. Finally, a proposed hybrid method for the protection of incumbent spectrum users and WSD from interference is demonstrated.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Computer Science, College of Science, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Information Technology
Keywords
Television, Central region, Ghana
Citation