White space utilization

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9674839-B2
Application number	US-201514738562-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 12, 2015
Priority date	Sep 11, 2012
Publication date	Jun 6, 2017
Grant date	Jun 6, 2017

Abstract

The concepts relate to radio white space utilization. One example can measure a potential radio white space frequency. The example can also communicate results of the measuring for other devices and receive other results from the other devices relating to the potential radio white space frequency. The method can further determine whether the potential radio white space frequency is actually an available radio white space frequency based upon the results and the other results.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
obtaining signal strength measurements for a potential white space frequency, wherein the signal strength measurements are measured by multiple devices;
obtaining sampling quality information for the multiple devices;
weighting the signal strength measurements from the multiple devices based on the sampling quality information; and,
determining whether the potential white space frequency is an available white space frequency based on the weighted signal strength measurements.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the signal strength measurements comprise strengths of signals, voltages of the signals, or phases of the signals.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sampling quality information comprises data related to processing capability of the multiple devices and/or comprises bits per sample values for the signal strength measurements from the multiple devices.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sampling quality information comprises confidence levels assigned by the multiple devices to respective signal strength measurements from the multiple devices.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising distributing results of the determining to the multiple devices.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising storing the distributed results and lowering consumption of sensing resources by using the stored distributed results.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sensing another signal strength measurement;
weighting the another signal strength measurement; and,
determining whether the potential white space frequency is the available white space frequency based on the weighted signal strength measurements and the weighted another signal strength measurement.

8. A device, comprising:
a processor; and,
storage storing computer-readable instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
obtain signal strength measurements for a potential white space frequency, wherein the signal strength measurements are measured by multiple sensing devices;
obtain sampling quality information for the multiple sensing devices;
weight the signal strength measurements from the multiple sensing devices based at least in part on the sampling quality information; and,
determine whether the potential white space frequency is an available white space frequency based at least in part on the weighted signal strength measurements.

9. The device of claim 8 , further comprising a sensor configured to sense an individual signal strength measurement of the potential white space frequency.

10. The device of claim 9 , wherein the device is one of the multiple sensing devices.

11. The device of claim 8 , further comprising wireless circuitry configured to communicate the weighted signal strength measurements with the multiple sensing devices.

12. The device of claim 8 , wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause the processor to request one of the multiple sensing devices to query a regulatory database to obtain authorization to use the potential white space frequency.

13. The device of claim 8 , wherein at least one of the multiple sensing devices is coupled via a wired connection to another one of the multiple sensing devices that has wireless capability.

14. The device of claim 8 , wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause the processor to use an error decoder to determine whether an individual signal strength measurement of the potential white space frequency meets a predefined threshold criteria.

15. A system, comprising:
a sensor configured to sense white space frequencies; and,
a communication component configured to:
receive signal strength measurements for a potential white space frequency from multiple devices,
weight the signal strength measurements based at least in part on sampling quality information associated with the signal strength measurements, and
determine whether the potential white space frequency is an available white space frequency based at least in part on the weighted signal strength measurements.

16. The system of claim 15 , embodied on a single device, wherein the communication component is implemented by dedicated circuitry on the single device.

17. The system of claim 15 , embodied on a single device, wherein the communication component is implemented as a general purpose processor of the single device.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the sampling quality information comprises sampling rate capabilities of the multiple devices that sensed the signal strength measurements.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein the communication component is further configured to check current availability of the potential white space frequency by accessing a database.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the communication component is further configured to query the database to obtain authorization to use the potential white space frequency.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Hassan Amer A
• Reed Daniel A
• Garnett Paul W
• Anders Billy

Classifications

• H04W72/541

  using the level of interference · CPC title

• H04B17/318

  Received signal strength · CPC title

• H04W72/082

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W16/14

  Spectrum sharing arrangements {between different networks} · CPC title

• H04W72/0453 Primary

  Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA · CPC title