The outlook on white space utilization policy in Korea: Lessons from the DTV leading countries, namely, the US, the UK, and Japan

Some countries have already finished or are progressing toward a transition to Digital Television (DTV). In particular, the US and UK have conducted technical analyses of white space, and its management strategy is under review. They are also working on determining what kind of service could be used for white space. According to this trend, a special research team led by the Japanese government was formed to study DTV white spaces utilization, and its study was conducted at the end of July 2010 [1]. In Korea, a study was recently begun on Cognitive Radio (CR) that could be applied for white spaces. However, no official research is being conducted to quantify the available spaces and their management strategy depending on the service applications. In this paper, we propose an appropriate spectrum management scheme for white space in Korea considering the results of a survey, Spectrum Requirement According to DTV Transition, and an iconography review based on tentatively assigned DTV channels around three DTV pilot test areas, Uljin, Danyang, and Gangjin.