Firefly Algorithm based Power Control in Wireless TV White Space Network

Abstract

Spectrum occupancy assessments done in USA, Spain, Singapore, New Zealand and Germany [1] and UK [2], indicate that a large portion of spectrum assigned to primary users (PUs) is underutilized. Spectrum is considered a scarce resource. More and more devices want a pie of the spectrum and yet the useful spectrum is limited. Dynamic spectrum access (DSA), through the use of cognitive radio (CR) techniques is currently being embraced as a solution to spectrum underutilization and spectrum scarcity. This is because DSA, together with CR, provides an efficient way for spectrum management and spectrum sharing. DSA allows the existence of both primary and secondary users in a noninterfering basis. With DSA, spectrum allocated for exclusive use to a primary user (PU) but being not used by the PU (incumbent), or any other idle frequency bands (such as guard bands) can be shared by different secondary users (SUs) as long as the interference to the incumbent by the secondary users to the PU is kept to an acceptable level [3]. The spectrum band which has attracted a lot interest in the DSA community is the TV White Spaces (TVWS). TVWS is the spectrum band not being utilized efficiently by TV transmitters in the UHF band. The main reason for this increased interest is the good propagation characteristics of the sub-1 GHz spectrum....