A comparison of centralized, Peer-to-Peer and autonomous dynamic spectrum access in a tactical scenario

Several concepts for more dynamic spectrum access have been suggested: 1. terminals making autonomous decisions without coordination 2. Networks cooperating in peer-to-peer (P2P) constellations without an infrastructure 3. Centralized spectrum server concepts which makes local decisions and coordinate through a broker hierarchy. In this paper we compare these three types of concepts in terms of spectrum decisions, computational complexity in the radio nodes and the need for spectrum coordination traffic between nodes. We present practical algorithms in terms of complexity and performance. We conclude with discussing the usefulness of these systems for military deployable communications systems in a hostile environment.