Radio spectrum utilization

#Ever increasing numbers of wireless devices are being introduced and sold. As such, the radio channel (RF) spectrum available for these wireless devices to communicate continues to get more and more crowded. More efficient use of the RF spectrum and sharing under-utilized RF spectrum are very important to meet the growing number of wireless devices. One portion of the RF spectrum that is under-utilized is the portion reserved for broadcasting, such as television (TV) broadcasting. Governmental regulators divided the TV portion or range (and/or other portions) into a plurality of channels. However, for any given geographic region many of the channels are not utilized for TV or radio broadcasting.

#Unused frequencies or channels of the reserved TV portion of the RF spectrum can be referred to as TV white space. It is possible to utilize these TV white spaces for other uses, however, their use tends to be tightly regulated by governmental institutions (such as the Federal Communications Commission in the United States).

#These governmental institutions are establishing databases that map channels or channel utilization to geographic location. Stated another way, for a given location, the database can indicate a sub-set of channels that are utilized (e.g., allocated) for TV broadcasting and other licensed use (such as wireless microphones in some countries) and/or a different sub-set of channels that are TV white spaces.

#The accompanying drawings illustrate implementations of the concepts conveyed in the present document. Features of the illustrated implementations can be more readily understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Like reference numbers in the various drawings are used wherever feasible to indicate like elements. Further, the left-most numeral of each reference number conveys the FIG. and associated discussion where the reference number is first introduced.

#FIGS. 1-8 show examples of systems configured to utilize radio channels in accordance with some implementations of the present concepts.

#FIGS. 9-13 are flowcharts of examples of radio channel utilization techniques in accordance with some implementations of the present concepts.

#Overview

#This patent relates to utilizing radio spectrum, and more specifically to more efficient use of radio channels of the spectrum. More efficient use of radio channels can allow the radio spectrum to support more traffic overall and/or at a specific location. More efficient radio spectrum use can be achieved by tracking radio channels available for use at a given location along with the use of individual channels. This information can allow traffic from congested channels to be switched to less congested channels.

#Radio channels can include radio white space channels, cellular channels, Wi-Fi channels, Bluetooth channels, etc. Radio white space channels can include TV white space channels and/or other radio white space channels. As used herein a “TV white space channel” means a channel or channel range that was reserved for TV broadcasting, but which is not actually used for TV broadcasting in a particular geographic region. Similarly, “radio white space channel” means a channel or channel range that was reserved for TV broadcasting, for other radio broadcasting, or two way radio communications, but which is not actually used in such manner in a particular geographic region. Stated another way, radio white space can refer to allocated but unused radio spectrum.