Dynamic Spectrum Access in the Time Domain: Modeling and Exploiting White Space

TLDR

Dynamic spectrum access offers a promising solution to the spectrum scarcity faced by wireless communications. The study aims to reuse sparsely occupied frequency bands without interfering with licensees, focusing on time‑domain reuse of idle periods between bursty transmissions in WLAN. A statistical model derived from empirical data is used to design access strategies for time‑domain spectrum sharing, illustrated with a Bluetooth–WLAN coexistence scenario.

Abstract

Dynamic spectrum access is a promising approach to alleviate the spectrum scarcity that wireless communications face today. In short, it aims at reusing sparsely occupied frequency bands while causing no (or insignificant) interference to the actual licensees. This article focuses on applying this concept in the time domain by exploiting idle periods between bursty transmissions of multi-access communication channels and addresses WLAN as an example of practical importance. A statistical model based on empirical data is presented, and it is shown how to use this model for deriving access strategies. The coexistence of Bluetooth and WLAN is considered as a concrete example.