The emergence of whitespace networks, and whitespace
communications in general, provides an opportunity to,
at least partially, meet the ever-growing demand for mobile
data communication. Most of the whitespace network solutions
proposed so far realize coordination and rendezvous over licensed
or unlicensed spectrum. In this paper we propose a protocol for
networks that rely solely on whitespace spectrum. The proposed
protocol allows both communication to the broader network
(via the access point) and direct device-to-device links over
whitespaces. To showcase the capabilities of the proposed solution
we have implemented a proof-of-concept software defined radio
experiment. Using the experimental platform we have evaluated
the overheads of whitespace operation, which come in the form
of an extra delay in association and a throughput loss of around
15% of that achievable with licensed spectrum. Our goal is to
provide the groundwork for future radio systems that will operate
in whitespace spectrum.
I. INTRODUCTION