Vehicular Communications Over TV White Spaces in the Presence of Secondary Users

The lack of available spectrum for wireless communications is a threat to the successful deployment of applications designed for intelligent transportation systems (ITSs). The ITS services should be available to a high number of road users and have a fast response time. The interworking between radio access networks is one way to increase spectrum availability. In particular, the joint operation of the dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) technology and TV white spaces (TVWS) has been proposed to increase the dissemination distance for safety messages in vehicular networking. However, previous works have often assumed that the only restriction on the opportunistic access of TVWS is the presence of a TV transmitter (i.e., the primary user). Other secondary users, such as the popular White-Fi networks to be deployed in TV bands, are omitted from the analysis of opportunistic channel access over TVWS. This is despite several proposals in the literature that use secondary networks for purposes other than vehicular networking over TVWS. In this paper, we analyze the opportunistic use of TVWS when other fixed users, such as White-Fi networks, are present. We estimate channel access opportunities and introduce a new metric, the channel availability for opportunistic vehicular access (CAFOVA), which relates the channel occupancy of the White-Fi network, the speed of the vehicle, and the channel verification distance. The results show that there are opportunities for vehicular access even when a White-Fi network occupies the TVWS. Vehicles may use these opportunities for transmission, instead of spending time looking for a new available TVWS and establishing a new link with another vehicle. Therefore, even when a White-Fi network occupies the same TVWS, it may be possible to exploit dynamic spectrum access to extend the available spectrum for vehicular communications.