Quality of service aware channel allocation for white spaces radio networks

Abstract

The growing demand for high-speed and ubiquitous connectivity continues to present new challenges for efficient usage, management and sharing of radio frequency spectrum. Dynamic spectrum access concept, enabled by cognitive radio technology, allows heterogeneous wireless networks to share white spaces or unused RF spectrum without compromising quality of service (QoS) for secondary users. In this paper, a QoS Aware White Spaces Allocation (QAWSA) scheme is proposed for bandwidth constrained white space radio networks. We assume white space channels are identified using a geo-location spectrum database (GLSDB) combined with a reactive spectrum sensing technique. Such combination of GLSDB and reactive spectrum sensing ensures that correct white spaces are selected and assigned for communication at a desired QoS levels. Analytical results showed that our proposed QAWSA scheme performedbetter than the sequential white space allocation, especially in guaranteeing the QoS requirements for secondary users. The proposed scheme can be used in the deployment of dynamic spectrum access aware wireless networks such as the television white spaces for broadband communication and narrowband connectivity networks in both especially in rural areas.