TV white space databases: Algorithms for the calculation of maximum permitted radiated power levels

The UK and European framework for access to the UHF TV band by white space devices (WSDs) is predicated on the availability of instructions from white space databases (WSDBs) which specify location-specific maximum permitted WSD radiated power levels. These levels are calculated in such a way so as to afford protection to the digital terrestrial TV (DTT) service in terms of a maximum permitted degradation in DTT location probability. The contribution of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, we present an approach for the calculation of DTT location probability which improves considerably on the accuracy of the technique commonly used for this purpose. Secondly, we present a novel methodology for the calculation of the maximum permitted WSD EIRP, subject to a target degradation in location probability. We show that, despite its low computational efficiency, the methodology generates results which compare favorably with those generated via brute-force Monte Carlo simulations. Both presented techniques are suitable for implementation in TV white space databases.