Resource allocation techniques for cellular networks in TV white space spectrum

TV white space (TVWS) represents unused TV channels - resulting from the transition to digital over-the-air broadcasting - made available by FCC for unlicensed secondary users. This presents opportunities for new wireless networks and services, for example as a complement to licensed 4G cellular networks as a mechanism for data offloading, in analogy with the use of 802.11 WLAN hotspot networks for current 3G networks. However, certain design challenges must be addressed - TVWS spectrum is characterized by significant (spatial) variability in number and quality (measured by signal to interference and noise ratio) of available channels. Therefore, channel allocation - that seeks to optimize some overall network performance metric - must be adapted to this variation while complying with FCC regulations. In this paper, we explore the problem of resource allocation in TVWS spectrum by developing models for channel availability based on co-channel interferences among secondary users as well as primary-to-secondary interference. We define two formulations: a) based on maximizing number of allocated channels, and b) based on total network throughput. Techniques for solving these two formulations are explored and the results are compared through numerical evaluations.