Coordinated Tethering Over White Spaces

Coordinated tethering over a white-space spectrum is investigated herein to increase mobile broadband spectrum efficiency in densely populated areas. This paper proposes an algorithm for operator-controlled tethering over white spaces. The proposed approach does not add to the existing infrastructure but instead allows the individual nodes to act as “hotspots” and to tether data to and from other nodes. The proposed algorithm iteratively clusters the nodes into hotspots and slaves and allocates resources to maximize spectrum utility. The proposed method's dynamic characteristics allow cellular systems to hierarchically evolve in dense areas as necessary. A signaling framework for node-to-node and base-station-to-node communication that enables such operator-controlled tethering is also presented. Simulation results show that given a fixed amount of network resources, the proposed algorithm can significantly increase the number of supported users.

I. Introduction

SMARTPHONE proliferation is driving the demand for ubiquitous access to wireless data anywhere and at any time. This demand is great in crowded venues such as conference halls and shopping malls, where a large number of mobile devices contend for the limited spectrum. The present wireless cellular spectrum is generally not sufficient to meet the simultaneous demands of hundreds of densely packed mobile users in a region.