Method and system for wireless networking using coordinated dynamic spectrum access

• US 20060083205A1
• Filed: 12/21/2004
• Published: 04/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Miller, Scott C., Buddhikot, Milind M., Kolodzy, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 9,161,231 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/10 Dynamic resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

A method and system for coordinated dynamic access to radio spectrum for wireless networking includes defining a coordinated access band (CAB) from which radio access network (RAN) managers may request spectrum allocations in the form of time bound spectrum leases for their respective requesting base stations. In one embodiment of the present invention, a DIMSUMnet architecture is implemented to make some fundamental choices and to centralize the collection of information, such as spectral occupancy, thermal and adjacent frequency interference. Such collected information is subsequently used by a spectrum broker in making spectrum allocation decisions. The DIMSUMnet architecture of the present invention also introduces a RAN manager element to centralize the task of acquiring time bound spectrum leases and for configuring the base stations.

Claims

1. A method for coordinated dynamic access to radio spectrum for wireless networking, comprising:

defining a coordinated access band (CAB) of radio frequencies from which spectrum may be dynamically allocated; and

allocating at least a portion of said CAB in the form of a time bound spectrum lease.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said CAB is allocated to a requester in response to a request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said CAB is defined in a radio spectrum under the control of a regulating body.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said CAB comprises at least one of frequency bands adjacent to current cellular bands, PCS bands and unused broadcast TV channels.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said CAB is defined in a radio spectrum under the control of a licensee of radio spectrum.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said CAB comprises a plurality of segmented portions of a radio spectrum.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining spectrum information channels for providing spectrum management information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said spectrum information channels are defined within the CAB.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said spectrum information channels are defined outside of the CAB.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein said spectrum management information comprises spectrum section boundaries, a requester to which each spectrum section is allocated, a current waveform or network access method used, time duration of a lease of each allocated spectrum portion, a maximum transmission power allowed, and an interference temperature.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said interference temperature defines an amount of interference or a total RF energy from ambient noise, thermal noise and other sources of noise.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein each allocated CAB portion may simultaneously comprise at least two lease holders.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein a first of said at least two lease holders is a primary lease holder and a second of said at least two lease holder is a secondary least holder and wherein said primary lease holder has rights to operate at a relatively higher power within the allotted spectrum and said secondary lease holder must operate at a lower power to ensure minimum interference with said primary lease holder.

14. A coordinated access band (CAB), comprising:

a plurality of segmented portions of a radio spectrum from which spectrum may be dynamically allocated in the form of time bound spectrum leases to requesters needing increased bandwidth.

15. The CAB of claim 14, further comprising spectrum information channels for providing spectrum management information.

16. A system for coordinated dynamic access to radio spectrum for wireless networking using radio spectrum frequencies having a coordinated access band (CAB) of radio frequencies of a radio spectrum defined therein from which spectrum may be dynamically allocated, said system comprising:

a plurality of base stations;

at least one spectrum information management (SPIM) server for managing spectrum allocation of said CAB frequencies;

at least one radio access network (RAN) manager for negotiating a lease from said SPIM server for an appropriate amount of spectrum for a requesting base station; and

a packet transport network for providing communication between said plurality of base stations, said SPIM server and said RAN manager.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said SPIM server further propagates information about the CAB spectrum to any entity interested in using at least a portion of the CAB spectrum.

18. The system of claim 17 where said CAB information includes spectrum section boundaries, a requester to which each spectrum section is allocated, a current waveform or network access method used, time duration of a lease of each allocated spectrum portion, a maximum transmission power allowed, and an interference temperature.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein said SPIM server supports a Spectrum Information protocol for communicating the Cab information and a Spectrum Lease protocol used by network entities to obtain leasing rights for portions of the CAB spectrum.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein said SPIM server implements at least two-dimensional representation of space for a scalable representation of the system topography and spectrum usage.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein a two-dimensional representation comprises a spectrum allocation map quadtree.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein said RAN manager is capable of controlling spectrum leases for several base stations simultaneously.

23. The system of claim 16, wherein said RAN manager maintains a record of dynamic characteristics of said base stations and available static characteristics of said base stations.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein based on location specific policies, base station characteristics, and geographical coverage requirements, said RAN manager computes an amount of spectrum required to meet bandwidth demands of said base stations and communicates lease requests to said SPIM server for fulfillment of the bandwidth demands for each of said base stations.

25. The system of claim 16, wherein said RAN manager, upon successfully negotiating a lease for a requesting base station, informs the requesting base station of the frequency bands of the allocated spectrum, a power to be used, and a type of waveform to be used.

26. The system of claim 16, wherein each of said base stations includes a plurality of logical instances of adaptive cognitive radio devices out of which a subset of the adaptive cognitive radio devices are reserved for spectrum information channels and others are used to provide access channels for data and voice transport services.

27. The system of claim 16, wherein said system comprises a plurality of RAN managers and said packet transport network uses one or more of the plurality of RAN managers to offer its services and provide additional service resiliency.

28. The system of claim 27, where each of said plurality of RAN managers uses non-overlapping frequencies for providing the same service.

29. The system of claim 16, wherein said at least one SPIM manager takes into account a spectrum lease history in making spectrum allocation decisions.

30. The system of claim 16, wherein said system comprises a plurality of SPIM managers for providing redundancy.

31. A base station for use in a system for coordinated dynamic access to radio spectrum for wireless networking using radio spectrum frequencies having a coordinated access band (CAB) of radio frequencies of a radio spectrum defined therein from which spectrum may be dynamically allocated, said base station comprising:

a plurality of adaptive cognitive radio devices for providing spectrum information channels and for providing access channels for data and voice transport services;

a Spectrum-information protocol for obtaining a spectrum map and spectral information of said CAB; and

a Spectrum-lease information protocol for obtaining spectrum leases of at least a portion of said CAB and for obtaining configuration information for said plurality of adaptive cognitive radio devices.

32. The base station of claim 31, wherein said base station comprises an IP-aware base station and implements IP-layer mobility support and IP services support.

33. The base station of claim 32, wherein cross-layer communication and signaling from radio layers to higher layers, such as layer-3 and above, are implemented to optimize a performance of said base station.

34. A client device for use in a system for coordinated wireless networking using radio spectrum frequencies having a coordinated access band (CAB) of radio frequencies of a radio spectrum defined therein from which spectrum may be dynamically allocated, said client device comprising:

a plurality of adaptive cognitive radio (ACR) devices for providing a control channel interface to access spectrum information channels and for providing a data interface for accessing transport services.

35. A Relay Cluster network, comprising:

a plurality of base stations;

at least one gateway; and

a plurality of relay units, at least one relay unit for each of said plurality of base stations and said at least one gateway, wherein each of said relay units includes at least one adaptive cognitive radio (ACR) device, each cognitive radio device configured to operate in respective dynamically allocated frequencies of a coordinated access band to form wireless links between said base stations.

36. The Relay Cluster network of claim 35, wherein each of said plurality of base stations comprises a respective access point and wherein said access points are configured to implement a legacy access technology.

37. The Relay Cluster network of claim 36, wherein said legacy access technology is 802.11.

38. The Relay Cluster network of claim 35, wherein said ACR devices are configured in a legacy access technology.

39. The Relay Cluster network of claim 35, wherein each of said relay units register with said at least one gateway upon power-up and informs said gateway of the configuration of a respective ACR device.

40. The Relay Cluster network of claim 35, wherein each of said relay units defines and records a respective path to said gateway.

41. The Relay Cluster network of claim 35, wherein each relay unit forwards respectively received end-user traffic towards said gateway.

42. The Relay Cluster network of claim 35, wherein said gateway obtains dynamic spectrum leases on behalf of a requesting relay unit.

43. The Relay Cluster network of claim 42, wherein said gateway, after obtaining a respective dynamic spectrum leases on behalf of a requesting relay unit, forwards configuration information to the respective requesting relay unit for configuration of a respective ACR device.