Aggregate interference with FCC and ECC white space usage rules: Case study in Finland

Abstract

In US FCC and in Europe ECC have outlined the rules for TV-band secondary use. In this paper we apply those rules and compute how much white space is available in Finland. The results are expressed in terms of available secondary channels and secondary system capacity. As a secondary system we use cellular networks with different cell sizes. Unfortunately, the current secondary spectrum usage rules do not protect the TV receivers sufficiently well. Even if each individual secondary transmitter obey them, together their aggregate interference can still disrupt the TV reception. We compute how much aggregate interference a secondary network generates if the network is designed either by FCC or ECC rules. We discover that only for a low secondary transmitters' density, the TV reception will not be disturbed. We can conclude that current white space usage rules are not adequate for protecting the TV receivers. There is a need to develop constraints that consider not only secondary transmission powers but also transmitters' density.