AN ARCHITECTURE FOR DYNAMIC SPECTRUM ALLOCATION IN HETEROGENEOUS WIRELESS NETWORKS

摘要

In order to fully utilize the scarce spectrum resources in heterogeneous networks which are composed of cellular network, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), UMTS, etc., the concept of dynamic spectrum allocation (DSA) has been brought forward. Be different from existing DSA studies, which mainly concern the DSA concept, algorithms and the benefits in enhancing spectrum efficiency, this paper presents an architecture aiming at functionally supporting dynamic spectrum allocation between different Radio Access Technologies (RATs) from the architectural aspect. The proposed architecture takes into account the joint technical and economical issues to enhance the spectrum utilization and maximize the profit of operators. Moreover, this paper describes the functionality of the components in the architecture, which provide means for estimating traffic, estimating spectrum, selecting RAT for spectrum trading, and negotiating the trading spectrum, etc. In addition, the working flow of DSA operation supported by the proposed architecture is also demonstrated.