Sensing TVWS with open source technology in Ecuador

Abstract

The identification of TVWS is fundamental to raise awareness about the existence of spectrum that is currently underutilized and that could be used to alleviate the current spectrum crunch. Recent standards that employ Cognitive Radio such as WRAN or White-Fi can then be employed for the exploitation of these frequencies. The traditional tools used to detect TVWS are expensive and difficult to master. The utilization of open hardware, software and an energy based detection method that helps detect these TVWS is developed and presented to assess the radio electric spectrum in the UHF band from 500 MHz to 686 MHz in the Pichincha province of Ecuador, South America.