A Spectrum Consumption Model-based Framework for DSA Experimentation on the COSMOS Testbed

Abstract

This paper describes a wireless experimentation framework for studying dynamic spectrum access mechanisms and an experiment that showcases its capabilities. The framework was built on COSMOS, an advanced wireless testbed designed to support real-world experimentation of next generation wireless technologies and applications. Our deployed framework supports experimentation over a large number of wireless networks, with a PUB-SUB based network interaction structure, based on the Collaborative Intelligent Radio Networks (CIRN) Interaction Language (CIL) developed by DARPA for the Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2). As such, it enables interaction and message exchanges between the networks for the purposes of coordinating spectrum use. For our experiment, the message exchanges are aimed primarily for, but not limited to, Spectrum Consumption Model (SCM) messages. RF devices/systems use SCM messages which contain detailed information about their wireless transmission characteristics (i.e., spectrum mask, frequency, bandwidth, power and location) to determine their operational compatibility (non-interference) with prior transmitters and receivers, and to dynamically determine spectrum use characteristics for their own transmissions.