Spectrum is among the world's most expensive natural resources and demand is skyrocketing due to the rapid proliferation of broadband wireless services. On the other hand, preliminary studies indicate the presence of a significant amount of white space, or unused space, in the radio spectrum. Thus, it is spectrum access, instead of true spectrum scarcity, that limits the potential growth of versatile wireless services. This project is motivated by this dilemma. Opportunistic utilization of the white space is studied, which has the great potential to mitigate the spectrum scarcity. The project focuses on modeling and protocol design. The expected results include new metrics to quantify the impact of exploiting white space and analytical models to capture the spatial and temporal characteristics of white space, and thus a better understanding on the potentials of opportunistic spectrum utilization. Furthermore, centralized and distributed algorithms will be developed that provide dynamic, efficient, and fair sharing of the opportunistically-available spectrum. Suitable solutions for different application scenarios will be identified. The results of the project will benefit the research community and provide theoretical data for policy-makers. The project will also enhance the education curriculum and foster the participation of under-represented groups in engineering.
