Eben Alberto Zavala, student at Universidade Wutive.

TV White Spaces (TVWS) and Cognitive Radios (CR)

A small word in technology can take us to a huge amount of information that most of the times are
not necessary. To avoid get unnecessary information will better to refine this topic into a small
brief and give a slight explanation about it. So, the goal here is just to aim directly on TV white
Spaces and Cognitive Radios definitions, advantages and so on.

TV White Spaces

What is white Spaces?

When radio communication started growing up some years ago and overpopulate every kind of
communication, many radio planning engineers and designers started being concerned about this
fast growth in the latest years, because it imposes the existence of a crowded spectrum.
Nevertheless, a solution came up. This solution came from the under-utilized spectrum. In fact, in
some regions, at certain periods, a large amount of frequency is not being utilized at all. This gives
rise to the so-called white spaces spectrum.
White spaces is needed to reduce the request for radio frequency spectrum growth.
The reuse of these spaces comes with several social and economic advantages, it means for
example that can be used to improve the signal on a rural areas, reduce of infrastructure services
cost, etc.
TV White Spaces is the unused TV Channels between the Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra
High Frequency (UHF) spectrum. These channels are called buffer channels. It has since been
researched and proven that this unused spectrum can be used to provide broadband Internet access
while operating harmoniously with surrounding TV channels.

TV white space application

These technology can be used in so many ways and places to provide some of the listed solutions
bellow:
Better Coverage than Wi-Fi;
Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Performance;
A New Broadband Possibility Connecting More People;
Beyond Broadband Connecting More Things.
This technology will be the key to Internet of Things (IoT) because all device connected to internet
will need a flexible signal to provide better functionality on data transference.
One of the zones of spectrum, where holes are easily identified, is the old analog television band,
which most of the time is completely free, taking into account the geo-location of a specific device.
This happens because TV broadcasting technology is changing, with analog TV transmissions
gradually being shut down and being replaced by their digital counterparts almost all over the
world.

Cognitive Radios
What is Cognitive Radios?
In order to consolidate the knowledge of TVWS, now we are going to explain a topic that comes
before that, it is called Cognitive Radios. It is the basis of white space device.
CR is a solution that optimize wireless network transmission and frequencies sharing using the
empty bands or subtilized bands, without causing interference on the original signal. The way it
works is: first, the transceivers analyses the transmissions already on progress than detects
available channels in wireless spectrum and find a way to transmit its signal without interfere on
the other transmission. In most of the existing applications, the transceivers identify white spaces
on the radio frequency spectrum to be able to accommodate telecommunications services, making
better rational spectrum usage. The CR follows the new standard IEEE 802.22

The fusion of CR and TVWS is the future of our lives, so its really important to work hard to
make sure that these dream comes true to our country.

References:
http://idgnow.com.br/blog/circuito/2012/10/10/o-radio-cognitivo-e-o-futuro-da-internet/
http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/cognitive-radio
http://www.carlsonwireless.com/tv-white-space/
B. Nuno, C. Alessandro, G. G. Roberto, White Space Communication Technologies, United
Kingdom: Cambridge University Press 2015.