Collaborative Research: Measurement-Augmented Spectrum Databases for White Spaces

最近放宽无线电频谱管制的浪潮鼓励共享未充分利用的频谱（所谓的“空白区域”），其中持牌用户（主要）与未持牌或轻度持牌用户（次要）共存。美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）建议使用在线频谱数据库，以确保初级通信免受次级通信的干扰。然而，这些数据库提供的主要通信是否活跃的估计非常差，因为它们是基于经验驱动的无线电传播建模。这种准确性问题最终削弱了空白空间网络的商业案例，特别是在对主要和次要使用的需求都很高的城市地区。该项目的核心知识价值是对当前频谱数据库方法的根本性反思。该项目开发了一个功能系统架构，通过集成当前基于建模的方法和分布式频谱测量数据，改进了频谱数据库估计。该项目提供了实现这种测量增强数据库系统所需的关键组件：(i)由模型和数据库支持的开放访问光谱观测工具，（ii）基于空间统计的方法来集成建模和测量数据，（iii）收集大规模、分布式频谱测量数据并将其输入数据库的实用方法。该项目的成功将重新激发商业运营商对空白频段的兴趣，也将有助于FCC制定未来的频谱政策。开放获取的频谱观测工具将为研究人员提供重要的数据集和模型。该项目还计划在无线系统方面进行技术转让和跨学科的教育工作。

The recent wave of radio spectrum deregulation encourages shared use of underutilized spectrum (so-called 'white spaces') where licensed users (primary) co-exist with unlicensed or lightly licensed users (secondary). Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recommended use of online spectrum databases to ensure that primary communications are protected against interference coming from secondary communications. However, these databases provide notoriously poor estimates of whether a primary communication is active as they are based on empirically driven radio propagation modeling. This accuracy issue ultimately weakens the business case for white space networks, particularly in urban regions where the demand of both primary and secondary use is high.The core intellectual merit of the project is a fundamental rethinking of the current approach to spectrum databases. The project develops a functional system architecture that improves the spectrum database estimates by integrating the current modeling-based approach with distributed spectrum measurement data. The project delivers the key components necessary to realize such measurement-augmented database system: (i) open access spectrum observatory tool backed by models and databases, (ii) a spatial statistics-based approach to integrate modeling and measurement data, (iii) practical methods to collect large-scale, distributed spectrum measurement data to feed into the database. Success in the project will revitalize the interest in white spaces among commercial operators and also will help FCC in future spectrum policy formulation. The open access spectrum observatory tool will provide researchers with significant data sets and models. The project also plans technology transfer and cross-disciplinary educational efforts in wireless systems.