Changing the way data is displayed on the channel availability heatmap?

[Tim G]

The channel availability heatmap at https://www.google.com/get/spectrumdatabase/channel/ is almost what I am looking for.
There is one issue - it is currently configured to include all channels from 2 to 51 in the results.

I want to see the same heatmap, but only considering UHF channels from 14 to 51 (which is what most TVWS equipment actually supports).

I'm wondering what is the easiest way to create a visualization of that data? 

One route would be
1) sign up for the spectrum database API access
2) write and debug code to download channel availability for the US (by zip code? By incrementing through Lat and Lon steps?)
3) write and debug code to post-process the data to extract my subset of channels
4) study and learn the Google Maps Layers API
5) write and debug code display the channel availability data as a heatmap layer.

This path would take a considerable amount of time due to my inexperience in working with these APIs.

Given that the existing spectrum availability heatmap is so close to what I'm looking for, I wonder if there might be some shortcut to "tweak" the display to my needs?

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Michael Head]

Hi Tim,

Our heat maps show the spectrum availability according to the FCC rules, which define two primary device modes (fixed vs. mobile). I assume you're thinking of some fixed mode devices that haven't been built to use the full spectrum range available to them according to those rules.

Ultimately, I don't have a great recommendation for you, other than to note that if you try using the "portable" device type, you'll get a heat map generated using portal device rules that excludes channels 2-20. If you're just trying to get a sense of the channel availability, that could help.

I wouldn't recommend attempting to build large heat maps using the API. I think that path will be quite painful, and you'll be limited by the number of queries you can make per day (our daily limit is 1000 queries). Nevertheless, you could attempt it on a small scale, say around a particular area of interest. If you find the Google Maps API unassailable, you could write Google Earth KML to visualize any maps you generate.

Of course, you could consider implementing the FCC rules yourself. All the input data and rules are publicly available!

-- mike

[Kate Harrison]

Tim,

If you're willing to accept an approximate answer, I suggest checking out the software I've developed over the past four years. The source code is at https://github.com/kate-harrison/whitespace-eval and some sample results can be seen at http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~harriska/CR/wiki/doku.php?id=results:results. Please feel free to send me an email (my contact information is at http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~harriska/) if you'd like any more information on this option. I'd be happy to help you out if you're interested.

Kate

[Tim G]

Mike - thanks for the quick reply. I'm not sure I understand the value of spectrum availability afforded purely by the FCC rules, when there are no devices to take advantage of it.  Are you aware of any commercially available fixed TV band device that operates in the VHF bands?

Selecting the portable device class doesn't help, since the adjacent channel rules are different, and that completely changes the results compared to fixed devices.

Do you agree that a heatmap display of usable channels might be a useful resource?  You are with Google - perhaps you could check with the team responsible for the existing map to see if any modifications or user tweaks might be possible?

[Tim G]

Kate, Your code looks like an excellent starting point. I sent you some questions directly by email a couple days ago. Did you receive it?

[Kate Harrison]

Thanks! I received your questions and have already replied to them via email (these posts are slightly delayed).