Analysis of TV Spectrum Occupancy in KwaDlangezwa Township South Africa

This paper investigates spectrum occupancy focusing on TV bands. TV bands have the potential to exploit the available white space in order to improve the spectrum utilization opportunistically. It has been recognized that the white space measurement and analysis is important for the wide deployment of next generation cognitive wireless networks. Researchers have proposed different methods such as dynamic spectrum access for identification of white space. However, these proposed methods have a high computational complexity and are expensive for developing nations, especially in Africa. In order to address the complexity and high cost problem, a Location Aware Spectrum Database (LASD) has been proposed. LASD method is designed to allow reconfigurable TV white space (TVWS) network to provide full capacity and affordable wireless broadband internet connectivity. TVWS is a portion of the spectrum in the VHF/UHF bands which is not utilized based on time and location. This study analyzed the TV bands spectrum occupancy in KwaDlangezwa Township, a rural area in South Africa. The achieved results presented in this paper provide insight into the actual spectrum utilization of the TV bands in KwaDlangezwa as compared to spectrum occupancy studies conducted in rural areas of other countries.