Measurement of television white space spectrum in the Central region of Ghana
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Date
NOVEMBER, 2018.
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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