Preliminary Performance Assessment of TV White Spaces Technology for Broadband Communication in Malawi

Mikeka, Chomora; Mlatho, Justice; Thodi, Martin; Pinifolo, Jonathan; Kondwani, Dereck; Momba, L.; Zennaro, Marco; Arcia-Moret, Andres; Fonda, Carlo; Pietrosémoli, Ermanno

doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2014.07.051

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Such is the case of San Antonio, Venezuela, and Cucuta, Colombia urbanized border depicted Fig. 3 or, similarly in rural Lilongwe, Malawi from where UHF Mozambique's signal could be perceived during our experience in the first TVWS deployment in Malawi [10]. In these cases, as suggested in Fig.…”

Section: A Regionalised Repositorymentioning

confidence: 57%

“…Recent wireless technologies such as TVWS can be deployed if there is enough information about unoccupied portions of the spectrum. TVWS networks can be deployed in rural and remote areas more clearly because of the large amount of available TV spectrum and because they are well suited to long distances and provide a cost-effective solution [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Successful trials in Malawi [10] suggest that collecting spectrum dynamics with low-cost equipment can help in convincing regulators of the sub-utilisation of the spectrum. Moreover, monitoring costs are cut dramatically, and a first rough view of the spectrum occupancy is arguably better than the static (manual) approach [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Open and Regionalised Spectrum Repositories for Emerging Countries

Arcia-Moret¹,

Sathiaseelan²,

Zennaro³

et al. 2016

Preprint

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TV White Spaces have recently been proposed as an alternative to alleviate the spectrum crunch, characterised by the need to reallocate frequency bands to accommodate the ever-growing demand for wireless communications. In this paper, we discuss the motivations and challenges for collecting spectrum measurements in developing regions and discuss a scalable system for communities to gather and provide access to White Spaces information through open and regionalised repositories. We further discuss two relevant aspects. First, we propose a cooperative mechanism for sensing spectrum availability using a detector approach. Second, we propose a strategy (and an architecture) on the database side to implement spectrum governance. Other aspects of the work include discussion of an extensive measurement campaign showing a number of white spaces in developing regions, an overview of our experience on low-cost spectrum analysers, and the architecture of Zebra − RFO, an application for processing crowd-sourced spectrum data.

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Section: A Regionalised Repositorymentioning

confidence: 57%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Open and Regionalised Spectrum Repositories for Emerging Countries

Arcia-Moret¹,

Sathiaseelan²,

Zennaro³

et al. 2016

Preprint

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“…"Citizen Connect" in Namibia was the biggest TVWS implementation project in terms of area coverage in which TVWS equipment of Adaptrum Inc. [32] was used to cover an area of 9424 square km and connect 28 schools in northern Namibia [22]. Among different TVWS trials, the network latency varied from less than 10 ms (achieved at pilot projects at Botswana [21] and Limpopo province of South Africa [33], [34]) to around 120 ms (achieved at Cape Town, South Africa [35] and Zomba, Malawi [36], [37]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

TV White Space Based Wireless Broadband Internet Connectivity: A Case Study With Implementation Details and Performance Analysis

Islam

O’Hara

Shadoan

et al. 2021

IEEE Open J. Commun. Soc.

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Even at the current age of sophisticated communication systems, remote rural communities with low user density throughout the world lack broadband internet service of good quality. Traditional ways fall short to meet the demand of those regions due to technological or geographical challenges as well as less economic viability. Since the unlicensed operation of spare TV (Television) spectra was approved by the authorities in many countries of the world, various applications of those spectra, known as TV White Space (TVWS), have been researched. In many literature and implementations, TVWS has been found to be feasible in providing quality broadband internet service to deprived rural communities. Penetration through obstacles, good non-line-of-sight connectivity, long-distance transmission, wider horizontal beam-width, and abundance of unused TV channels in remote rural regions are some of the promising features of TVWS which can be leveraged to connect rural communities to broadband internet and related digital services. We made a comprehensive effort to evaluate TVWS based broadband internet connectivity through laboratory testing and outdoor testing with a measurement campaign at Stillwater, Oklahoma and by providing live internet service to a client in the rural area of Tillman county, Oklahoma, USA. Radio frequency (RF) coverage heatmaps have been created over the geographical map using the received signal data measured. Also, profiles of received power, signal to noise ratio (SNR) and throughput have been analyzed against antenna directionality. The purpose of this study is to provide the details of our TVWS trial and lessons learned from it, followed by performance analysis, comparison of results with theory and future directions.

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“…The IEEE 802.11af standard is the specification of physical and medium access control layers for wireless local area networks employing TV bands [8], whereas the IEEE 802.22 standard specifies physical and medium access control layers for cognitive radio networks over TV bands [9]. IEEE 802.11af and IEEE 802.22 networks have been proposed to improve broadband access in rural areas [10], [11], provide connectivity in educational initiatives [12]- [14], support agricultural projects [15], and provide connectivity in emergency response plans [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vehicular Communications Over TV White Spaces in the Presence of Secondary Users

2019

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The lack of available spectrum for wireless communications is a threat to the successful deployment of applications designed for intelligent transportation systems (ITSs). The ITS services should be available to a high number of road users and have a fast response time. The interworking between radio access networks is one way to increase spectrum availability. In particular, the joint operation of the dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) technology and TV white spaces (TVWS) has been proposed to increase the dissemination distance for safety messages in vehicular networking. However, previous works have often assumed that the only restriction on the opportunistic access of TVWS is the presence of a TV transmitter (i.e., the primary user). Other secondary users, such as the popular White-Fi networks to be deployed in TV bands, are omitted from the analysis of opportunistic channel access over TVWS. This is despite several proposals in the literature that use secondary networks for purposes other than vehicular networking over TVWS. In this paper, we analyze the opportunistic use of TVWS when other fixed users, such as White-Fi networks, are present. We estimate channel access opportunities and introduce a new metric, the channel availability for opportunistic vehicular access (CAFOVA), which relates the channel occupancy of the White-Fi network, the speed of the vehicle, and the channel verification distance. The results show that there are opportunities for vehicular access even when a White-Fi network occupies the TVWS. Vehicles may use these opportunities for transmission, instead of spending time looking for a new available TVWS and establishing a new link with another vehicle. Therefore, even when a White-Fi network occupies the same TVWS, it may be possible to exploit dynamic spectrum access to extend the available spectrum for vehicular communications.INDEX TERMS TV primary user, TV white spaces, vehicular dynamic spectrum access, White-Fi network.The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and approving it for publication was Arun Prakash.active road safety, cooperative traffic efficiency, and information and entertainment (also known as Infotainment). As shown in Table 1, each category has different latency, coverage, and data rate requirements, but all categories are subject to performance challenges due to the different node speeds and network densities encountered in vehicular scenarios.Channel availability is a fundamental requirement for the successful operation of vehicular applications, but the lack of available spectrum for wireless technologies is a threat for current and future applications designed for ITS. For example, in the presence of traffic congestion, the sending of a critical warning message may fail when concurrent transmissions

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Preliminary Performance Assessment of TV White Spaces Technology for Broadband Communication in Malawi

Cited by 13 publications

References 2 publications

Open and Regionalised Spectrum Repositories for Emerging Countries

Open and Regionalised Spectrum Repositories for Emerging Countries

TV White Space Based Wireless Broadband Internet Connectivity: A Case Study With Implementation Details and Performance Analysis

Vehicular Communications Over TV White Spaces in the Presence of Secondary Users

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