IEEE 802.11af: A Standard for TV White Space Spectrum Sharing

Spectrum today is allocated in frequency blocks that serve either licensed or unlicensed services. This static spectrum allocation has limited resources to support the exponential increase in wireless devices. In this article, we present the IEEE 802.11af standard, which defines international specifications for spectrum sharing among unlicensed white space devices (WSDs) and licensed services in the TV white space band. Spectrum sharing is conducted through the regulation of unlicensed WSDs by a geolocation database (GDB), the implementation of which differs among regulatory domains. The main difference between regulatory domains is the timescale in which WSDs are controlled by the GDB, resulting in different TVWS availability and WSD operating parameters. The IEEE 802.11af standard provides a common operating architecture and mechanisms for WSDs to satisfy multiple regulatory domains. This standard opens a new approach to treat spectrum as a single entity shared seamlessly by heterogeneous services.