Estimating the use of spectrum for defining and enforcing the spectrum access rights

In the static and exclusive spectrum allocation paradigm, the spectrum-access parameters for a service are chosen to mitigate potential harmful-interference and ensure minimum performance under worst-case conditions. The new dynamic spectrum-sharing paradigm necessitates dynamically defining and enforcing the spectrum-access rights while accommodating the dynamics of the RF environment and the spectrum-access scenarios. To enforce spectrum-access rights, we emphasize capturing the use of spectrum by an individual transceiver. We propose to articulate the spectrum-access rights in terms of the characterization of the spectrum used by an individual transceiver in the space, time, and frequency dimensions. In order to estimate the use of spectrum in real time, we employ a dedicated RF-sensor network that uses interference-tolerant algorithms to estimate the transceiver spectrum-access parameters and to characterize the propagation environment. We illustrate defining and enforcing a spectrum-access policy and we bring out its advantages for dynamic spectrum sharing.