Real-Time Multi-Channel TVWS Sensing Prototype Using Software Defined Radio

A novel real-time sensing prototype is devised using to identify TV white space (TVWS) over multiple TV channels instantaneously. The proposed sensing prototype can be tuned to detect up to ten TV channels simultaneously. For this purpose, an Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC) multi-channel pilot detection (AMPD) is proposed and implemented using Software Defined Radio (SDR) to provide a spectrum profiler and spectrum availability mapping over a given geographic location. The proposed sensing prototype is examined in a real world environment. Moreover, the spectrum occupancy results using the proposed prototype are presented and discussed as well. The spectrum survey on the experiment location shows that the average of spectrum occupancy is about 30.25%.