A Real Time Measurement Based Spectrum Occupancy Investigation in North-Western India for Cognitive Radio Applications

With ever-increasing traffic demand, the availability of large spectrum space with its efficient use is a necessity of future wireless communication. Under the current system of static spectrum access, the spectrum allocation-utilization ratio is very low. Using dynamic spectrum access (DSA), Cognitive Radio (CR) systems promise opportunistic use of unused spectrum space in the licensed band to significantly increase the spectrum efficiency. Investigation of spectrum occupancy in both licensed as well as unlicensed spectrum bands, provide the necessary information of spectrum usage that will be useful in future CR deployment. This paper describes the experimental measurement set-up and the analysis procedure for evaluating the spectrum occupancy thereby indicating significant spectrum availability in VHF/UHF, GSM and ISM bands at Jaipur city, Rajasthan, India.