IEEE 802.11af TVWS-WLAN with Partial Subcarrier System for Effective TVWS Utilization

Abstract

Demand for wireless communication is increasing significantly, but the frequency resources available for wireless communication are quite limited. Currently, various countries are prompting the use of TV white spaces (TVWS). IEEE 802.11 Working Group (WG) has started a Task Group (TG), namely IEEE 802.11af, to develop an international standard for Wireless local Area Networks (WLANs) in TVWS. In order to increase maximum throughput, a channel aggregation mechanism is introduced in the draft standard. In Japan, ISDB-T based area-one-segment broadcasting system (Area-1seg) which is a digital TV broadcast service in limited areas has been permitted to offer actual TVWS services since April 2012. The operation of the IEEE 802.11af system shall not jeopardize the Area-1seg system due to the common operating frequency band. If the Area-1seg partially overlaps with the IEEE 802.11af in some frequency, the IEEE 802.11af cannot use the channel aggregation mechanism due to a lack of channels. As a result, the throughput of the IEEE 802.11af deteriorates. In this paper, the physical layer of IEEE 802.11af D4.0 is introduced briefly, and a partial subcarrier system for IEEE 802.11af is proposed to efficiently use the TVWS spectrum. The IEEE 802.11af co-exist with the Area-1seg by using null subcarriers. Computer simulation shows up to around 70% throughput gain is achieved with the proposed mechanism.