On the Definition and Estimation of Spectrum Occupancy

Spectrum occupancy for channels and bands of similar channels is defmed. A distinction is made between transmission occupancy and message occupancy. The measurement time required to determine if a given channel is occupied is considered as well as the time required to estimate the degree of transmission occupancy with a given statistical confidence. Nonparametric (distribution-free) statistical techniques are employed to obtain this estimate and to determine the sample size required to establish confidence bounds for a set of channel or band transmission occupancy values.