Discerning white space and leveraging its potential using USRP and GNU radio

Abstract

In this paper, we have intended and delineated about discerning the white space in the spectrum which is precious. The Cognitive Radio is transpiring because of its idiosyncratic nature of exploiting the unused spectrum for various praxis. Initially, we have discerned the unused frequencies in the TV band which comprises from 585 to 698 MHz and in the FM band which comprises from 87.5 MHz to 108.0 MHz in the spectrum. Subsequently, we have demonstrated the usage of this unused spectrum by transmitting an audio and a file in these bands. We have also checked the spectrum while transmitting and received the data and audio file. For implementing this we have utilized the USRP (Universal Software Radio Peripheral) and GNU Radio, a hardware and software platform respectively. The sensed spectrum and transmitted audio's screen shots are discussed in the following sections.