Some Are Born With White Space, <italic>Some Achieve White Space</italic>, and Some Have White Space Thrust Upon Them

Abstract

Abstract-A few steps from Shakespeare's spiritual home The Globe Theatre in London, the UK regulator Ofcom is formulating its own well-crafted play based on TV White Spaces (TVWS). Such work comfortably fits into the Shakespearean analogy of "some achieve white space" through implementation of clever twists to make white space available while not causing harmful interference to incumbents, noting that the UK is extremely busy in terms of spectrum usage. This paper reports on some of the work of by our trial within the Ofcom TV White Spaces Pilot, building key observations on beneficial usage scenarios for TVWS through link testing examples. It also particularly investigates performance of TVWS in terms of availability and capacity, through these scenarios and more generally, strongly focusing on aggregation of TVWS resources.A number of key observations result from this paper, some of which we highlight here. First, in the UK, and in Europe in general where local DTT deployment characteristics and landscapes are similar to the UK, TVWS has most benefit potential in below-rooftop receiver and indoor deployments. This is even more so if local white space device (WSD) deployment is extensive. Given this, we define and assess key baseline scenarios that we term as "mobile broadband downlink" and "indoor broadband provisioning" (akin to Wi-Fi or small cells in TVWS). We also argue comparison with other scenarios/topologies through parameter changes. We further demonstrate the strength of TVWS for the indoor case through link performance tests.A second key observation is that good TVWS availability is achieved through the sophisticated regulatory approach of Ofcom, noting that the same approach to TVWS is harmonized across Europe through the ETSI EN 301 598 standard. However, this is affected by scenario: High power, high transmitter (e.g., >30 m above ground level) scenarios have a particularly reduced and variable availability. High capacities are achieved by aggregating TVWS channels, especially if non-contiguous aggregation is supported. Moreover, profound implications for WSD RF design are derived based on such results, particularly under contiguous aggregation or channel bonding.A third key observation is that TVWS yields significant future potential, despite headwinds such as the WRC 2015 decision to allocate 694-790 MHz to mobile broadband on a coprimary basis in ITU Region 1, which was nevertheless expected.

5G Technology: Towards Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Using Cognitive Radio Networks

“…The numerical results proved that high system QoS performance, which contributes to good outage probability, sum rate and spectrum efficiency, is achieved. Holland [109] studied the parameter performance of the TVWS band, especially during the aggregation of TVWS resources. They assessed the experiment with two conditions, which are mobile broadband downlink and indoor broadband provisioning.…”

D2D-Based Grouped Random Access to Mitigate Mobile Access Congestion in 5G Sensor Networks

“…Such spectrum sharing will often be between very different services and owners of the spectrum, such that the spectrum sharing must usually be approved by the regulator-typically through automated regulatorydriven or certified GDBs. A number of regulatory initiatives/trials are being undertaken or have been completed showing such GDB concepts in action, including TV white space (TVWS) [13], Licensed-Shared Access [14], and the Citizens Broadband Radio Service [15]-for which an LTE band is already designated. 2) One key aspect of 5G is heterogeneity; moreover, common management among the heterogeneous systems/elements in 5G will likely not preexist.…”

On the potential of TVWS spectrum to enable a low cost middle mile network infrastructure

“…In this paper, we examine this potential for leveraging TVWS spectrum for middle mile connectivity through analysis of TVWS spectrum that could be used for this purpose, considering a representative rural region in the UK. Unlike the several previous studies on TVWS spectrum availability (e.g., [4]), we focus on the quality of the available TVWS spectrum to be able to enable middle mile links by accounting for not only the topography of the region but also the aggregate interference from nearby TV transmitters and relays. To this end, we introduce a novel TVWS receiver oriented notion of "usable" TVWS spectrum that differs from the commonly used TVWS transmitter side perspective on spectum availability.…”

“…However, in view of the reliability and complexity concerns with the spectrum sensing approach, TV white space regulations in the US, UK and elsewhere have opted for the alternative geolocation database approach (e.g., [14]), which has also become the basis for newer TVWS standards (e.g., 802.11af [15]. Geolocation database systems in practice rely on mathematical propagation models along with the knowledge of primary user locations, similar to the several TVWS spectrum availability studies in the literature (e.g., [4], [16]- [18]). This has been argued to be too much in favor of incumbent protection, thus conservative and limit white space usage opportunities for secondary users [19].…”