Technical Summary
Portions of the radio spectrum that are allocated to licensees are
available for non-interfering use. This available spectrum is called
"White Space." Allowing secondary users access to available spectrum
"unlocks" existing spectrum to maximize its utilization and to
provide opportunities for innovation, resulting in greater overall
spectrum utilization.
One approach to manage spectrum sharing uses databases to report
spectrum availability to devices. To achieve interoperability among
multiple devices and databases, a standardized protocol must be
defined and implemented. This document defines such a protocol, the
"Protocol to Access White Space (PAWS) Databases".
Working Group Summary
During the design of the protocol, in earlier phases, there was some
controversy, even deadlock at some point over a few points. But
issues got addressed, and for the last 3 versions of the document
there were no comments indicating any controversy. There were
significant comments during AD Review and Last Call that have
also been addressed to the satisfaction of the reviewers, and a
second Last Call took place to confirm.
Document Quality
During private conversations, several mailing list members indicated
that they have an implementation of a version of the protocol, but
none came forward publicly with their implementations yet, and there
was no request to hold an interop event.
Personnel
Gabor Bajko <gaborbajko@gmail.com> is the shepherd.
Pete Resnick <presnick@qti.qualcomm.com> is the AD.