Empirical Pathloss Model Analysis of Television White Space in Lagos, Western Nigeria

Abstract

To conduct feasible unlicensed communications in the television band, radio equipment must first identify transmission possibilities, or the proportion of the permitted spectrum for broadcasting services that is vacant at a given time in a particular location, which is referred to as Television White Space (TVWS). A drive test was conducted to determine the signal strength of three cell towers in three distinct areas of Lagos state (rural, suburban, and urban). The signal power parameters were measured in rural, urban, and suburban parts of Lagos in order to provide empirical values for the parameters that unlicensed radio devices can utilize to distinguish between vacant and occupied television channels in a real-world scenario. This research presents the results of field measurements in the UHF television band (470-860 MHz) conducted in Lagos. This work investigated and compared several propagation models (COST 231 model, Egli model, Okumura-Hata model, and Plain Earth model). The Standard Deviation Error (SDE), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), and Mean Error (ME) analysis showed that the COST-231 Hata model is the optimal model for calculating path loss based on path loss exponents. This discovery led to the development of an improved model, the Oressuff TV model, which uses COST-231 Hata parameters to predict path loss in the 470–870 MHz spectrum for rural, urban, and suburban locations. From the result of Root Mean Square Error analysis, the proposed model predicted path loss in rural, urban, and suburban stations with low RMSE of 3.06dB, 3.08dB, and 1.19dB respectively. These figures indicate that the model optimization was successful, and that the Oressuff TV proposed model can estimate the path loss incurred by television signals with greater precision. Telecommunications firms may improve their service by utilizing the proposed model.