An OFDM throughput analysis for cognitive radio application in contiguous or noncontiguous TV white spaces

Radio frequency spectrum is a finite and scarce resource. Efficient use of the radio frequency spectrum is a fundamental research issue. Since a large portion of the assigned radio frequency spectrum is used only sporadically, the bands currently allocated to TV services can be opportunistically reassigned to support broadband networking services while continuing to provide broadcast TV. The fragmented and unused TV channels named white spaces have a considerable amount of bandwidth potential and long transmission ranges. Bandwidth scalability can be supported by bonding multiple contiguous or noncontiguous consecutive channels using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based cognitive radio. In this paper, an in-depth throughput analysis of OFDM fixed carrier spacing and fixed carrier number approaches has been done for various modulation schemes in TV white spaces. Signal propagation delay is studied under various channel conditions. An analytical model-based estimation of the throughput by taking into account channel bonding is presented.