Multi-channel allocation to coexisting networks in TV white spaces

The use of unused TV white space spectrum has been a topic of research in the recent past. In this paper, we focus on the situation in parts of the world such as India, where this spectrum is largely unused. We explore a framework where the spectrum can be efficiently used to provide broadband access in a multi-operator scenario. Specifically, we formulate and address limited colors weighted graph multi-coloring (LCWGMC) problem, to model the dynamic channel allocation requirement in such settings. Subsequent to showing that the LCWGMC problem is NP-hard, we formulate an ILP to solve it optimally. We then propose algorithms to solve LCWGMC optimally in two restricted scenarios. These then guide us to propose heuristics to solve LCWGMC. We show through evaluation that one of our heuristics (termed minIE) performs near-optimal in a variety of scenarios.