Educational prototype demonstrating frequency spectrum sharing through channel borrowing and priority assignment

The purpose of this research is to build an educational prototype for attracting high school seniors and college students to pursue university degrees. The prototype entails demonstrable hardware and software comprising of a set of communication nodes with call priorities, which are used to help educate students on future and practical implications of spectrum sharing. Two objectives are achieved by building this hands-on prototype: (1) Students learn firsthand basics of communication systems and (2) Students are taught the concept and feasibility of “priority” in RF device communication. In crafting this easy-to-use prototype, integrated Arduinos, RF modules, and open-source libraries are utilized. Eight simplex devices (or nodes) that can communicate over just three channels in the 2.4GHz ISM band are built to articulate the spectrum scarcity challenge. When placing a call, a device requests a channel from the base station, which notifies the device about available channels, taking into account both device priorities (e.g. some devices have higher priorities) and channels that are in use by other calls. The base station has the authority to remove devices from a channel or transfer them to another channel when necessary. The paradigm of “priority assignment” is implemented keeping in mind futuristic trends in communication systems aimed at optimal use of the transmission spectrum. The prototype is validated via many test cases.