A look ahead scheme for adaptive spectrum utilization

With the proliferation of wireless multimedia terminals and services, the demand for spectrum has been growing. Yet, there is widespread perception that the spectrum that has been assigned by the FCC for the various commercial and military applications is not being efficiently utilized. As a result there is several efforts underway that are dealing with the sensing of unused spectrum at a given time, and utilizing it for voice and/or data communications. In this paper, we consider spectrum opportunistic systems where the currently assigned spectrum is monitored in real time for idle bands and propose a new method to use any unutilized spectral opportunities, thereby enhancing the spectrum reuse efficiency. This new approach assigns packets to the sensed spectrum opportunities in the downlink of a cellular network.