Mika Kasslin

Developing a standard for TV white space coexistence: technical challenges and solution approaches

TV white space refers to TV channels that are not used by any licensed services at a particular location and at a particular time. To exploit this unused TVWS spectrum for improved spectrum efficiency, regulatory agencies have begun developing regulations to permit its use this TVWS by unlicensed wireless devices as long as they do not interfere with any licensed services. In the future many heterogeneous, and independently operated, wireless networks may utilize the TVWS. Coexistence between these networks is essential in order to provide a high level of QoS to end users. Consequently, the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN standards committee has approved the P802.19.1 standardization project to specify radio-technology-independent methods for coexistence among dissimilar or independently operated wireless devices and networks. In this article we provide a detailed overview of the regulatory status of TVWS in the United States and Europe, analyze the coexistence problem in TVWS, and summarize existing coexisting mechanisms to improve coexistence in TVWS. The main focus of the article is the IEEE P802.19.1 standardization project, including its requirements and system design, and the major technical challenges ahead.

Awareness networking in wireless environments

This article presented a platform for awareness networking, targeted for distribution of locally relevant control information between nodes in heterogeneous wireless environments. This concept can be leveraged in many different ways and purposes, as shown with the examples given, which range from network discovery, to functionalities required in cognitive radio systems to distributed services facilitating localized mobile social networking. Although a wide range of applications can be envisioned, the same basic solution for distributing locally relevant control information applies to all of them. Future research work on awareness networking is required on multiple areas, covering the technical details of the connectivity solution, details of the distributed algorithms, functionalities, and services, and the regulatory support required for their realization.

Mobile Multi-mode Terminal: Making Trade­ offs Between Software and Fixed Digital Radio

The mobile multi-mode terminal has contradictory requirements on operational flexibility and physical characteristics. Optimisation of terminal kernel, i.e., hardware resources and system software services, requires concurrent design of execution architecture and functionality. An approach for terminal architecture optimisation is presented. Functional optimisations and estimations are used to minimise the amount of basic functions and to identify resource sharing and configuration opportunities.