WHITENET: A white space network for campus connectivity using spectrum sensing design principles

To this day, the technical challenges of accessing TV white spaces through spectrum sensing can be summed up into its inability to provide maximum protection to primary users from interference. Yet, off-the-shelf spectrum sensing devices, which are emerging on the market at low cost, and the low computation and implementation complexities of the sensing technique, make them more and more attractive to the developing world. Building upon "WhiteNet", a white space network management platform for campus connectivity, this paper proposes design principles that can be incorporated in a spectrum sensing-based white space identification system to minimise probability ofcausing interference to primary users. The principles are designed around the cooperative spectrum sensing model to further reduce chances of interference to primary users. Evaluation of the principles was done using real-world indoor measurements and based on a real TV transmitter-allocation at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. The results reveal the relevance of using these design principles in white space networking using the emerging White-Fi protocol to boost the capacity of current Wi-Fi campus networks.