Planning and Simulation of TVWS Network for Broadband Connectivity in Sparsely Populated Environment

Abstract

Following the switchover from analogue to digital platforms, Television White Space (TVWS) affords a fertile opportunity to supplement existing licensed spectrum to ease the spectrum scarcity. Rural areas in the developing countries are predominantly unconnected as it is not viable for operators to provide broadband access in these areas. This paper designed the frame work and feasibility study for deploying broadband internet services using TVWS technology in Nnobi, a rural community in Anambra State, Nigeria. In this work field trials were carried out to identify antenna locations, an empirical propagation model was developed for the selected rural area, frequency occupancy measurement was done using 110dBm as the threshold value and capacity planning was carried out to determine the number of required sites and equipment, and finally, the network was designed and evaluated using a Radio link level software. From the results obtained such as the pathloss, antenna gain, clearance, elevation angle and distance of the CPEs from the TVWS Base station, helped in determining sites with good propagation conditions (line of site) and sites with bad propagation conditions were relocated. Equally, a comparative study of the cost of connecting such rural community using TVWS and LTE was also carried out. The results obtained showed that the cost of connecting such rural community with TVWS is about $33,809, while the cost of connecting the same community using LTE is about $239,757. The financial analysis has shown that delivering broadband for rural area using currently available technology is more expensive than using TVWS, therefore TVWS is recommended for such scenario.