Framework for TV white space spectrum access in Southern African Development Community (SADC)

Abstract

The global migration of television (TV) from analogue to digital broadcast will see a large amount of TV spectrum available (called TV white space -TVWS) for other services such as mobile and broadband wireless access (BWA). Leading spectrum regulation authorities, such as the Federal Communications Authority (FCC) and the Office of Communication (Ofcom) are already defined rules and policies for licence-exempt access of the TVWS for BWA, especially for rural areas. Key to these rules and policies are the transmission and operating parameters to ensure protection of TV incumbents from harmful interference that might be caused by the white space devices (WSD). In this paper we propose a framework for TVWS access and key transmission parameters for licence-exempt operation of WSD for providing rural BWA within the Southern African Development Community (SADC). These parameters are determined based on extensive studies and consultations completed by the FCC and Ofcom, but are optimized for the SADC rural environment. We believe that this paper will serve as an important guideline document for the SADC regulators to decide suitable technology and policies when opening TVWS for BWA, especially for the rural communities.

Modernizing African Townships using TV White Space Networks: A Case study of Mankweng Township in South Africa

“…As the technological aspects have been already discussed in other papers, e.g. in [20], let us briefly discuss the ways on how the P4 model can be applied. First, let us observe that the appropriate framework for realization of such concept has been already provided to the community by some of the countries in Southern African Developing Community (SADC) regions (please refer to Section 2.…”

“…Recent digital migration of television broadcast has freed-up large blocks of RF spectrum in the 470 -790 MHz band, and this spectrum promises to provide low cost broadband connectivity [20]. Thus, taking into account the above considerations, one of the promising technologies for application in South Africa for delivering broadband connectivity in rural and township areas is the deployment of TVWSNs.…”

“…Such an alternative has been already considered by international companies, such as Microsoft and Google, which led some measurements campaigns for TVWSN communications [21]. Furthermore, various works have been carried out to adapt the existing guidelines for the devices operating in white spaces to the African situation, such as in [20].…”

“…The TVWS pilot project has been deployed in Mankweng Township and the surrounding villages with special focus to selected secondary schools since 2014 [20]. As shown in Figure 3 Limpopo TVWSN connects five secondary schools, of which four of these schools are in rural villages and one school is in the township.…”