White spaces in UHF band: Catalonia case study and impact of the digital dividend

Abstract

White Spaces in the UHF bands are very interesting because of their potential use in rural communications, but their feasibility needs to be proven. This paper analyses the TV spectrum occupation in the region of Catalonia, Spain, because it will be one of the first EU regions where changes in the UHF band are going to be implemented. Those changes are derived from the implementation of the Digital Dividend. The goal of this paper is to correlate population density with future free channel availability, and to proof that communications through TV White Spaces equipment is a good candidate for low density population areas. © 2012 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.