Geolocation database beyond TV white spaces? Matching applications with database requirements

Abstract

Within the field of cognitive radio many of recent attention has gone to to specific use cases such as the so-called TV White Spaces (TVWS). Within this use case, there has been much discussion on which enabling technology would be appropriate to allow secondary use of the TV band. There seems to be a growing consensus that a geolocation database can successfully enable White Space Devices (WSDs) to make use of the TVWS without harmfully interfering with incumbent services, even though many issues still need to be resolved. Regulators across the globe have also been showing a preference towards this type of cognitive enabler for use in the TVWS-case. This paper argues that both the technology and the use case chosen for CR are firmly interlinked, but that other use cases and applications than TVWS exist where a geolocation database can be of use. It therefore sets out to identify distinct categories of wireless applications and match them with the appropriate geolocation database requirements, from the assumption that these may highly diverge from current database conceptions. In order to do so, a classification of database requirements, based on essential characteristics, will first be constructed. In a following section, the resulting framework of database- and corresponding application requirements will be applied to two use cases; broadband through TVWS and a wireless conferencing system. From this we can conclude that a geolocation database can also be valuable outside a TVWS-setting and that distinct wireless applications in varying contexts have different needs with regard to a database's capabilities and characteristics.