Maximising Access to a Spectrum Commons using Interference Temperature Constraints

We propose a new spectrum-access etiquette for cognitive radios in a spectrum commons. When congestion might block a new device from initiating a call, the surrounding devices coordinate their actions and locally reassign their spectrum to create a gap for the new entrant. The etiquette is designed for devices operating dissimilar services with different bandwidth and quality requirements. It generates link-level interference temperature constraints and finds a satisfying assignment using local search. In experimental simulation, we demonstrate that the etiquette provides significantly higher completion rates while improving the quality of the completed calls.