Digital dividend capacity in China: A developing country's case study

Abstract

In this paper, we present digital dividend (DD) spectrum capacity gain brought about by switching from analogue terrestrial television (ATT) to digital terrestrial television (DTT) which is now ongoing in China. DD spectrum represents total of TVWhite Space (TVWS) and the released spectrum in our paper. Since spectrum measurement is the most effective method to evaluate the capacity, we use measured TV UHF band data from 470 MHz to 798 MHz from diverse locations to acquire a quantitative DD capacity. Our results confirm the existence of at most 168 MHz DD capacity in urban areas which will provide good opportunities for Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) applications. We observe that during the transition period introducing DTT to rural areas tends to provide less spectrum compared with purely ATT broadcasting. Hence, rural areas have less DD capacity compared with urban areas, which totally contradicts previous measurement findings. Our data validates the practicality of fixed power level threshold rules for idle TV channel detection. We find field strength is another threshold choice for determining TV channel states. Our spectrum measurement methodology and findings are applicable to spectrum planning and spectrum regulations, especially for developing countries that are in DTT transition periods.