Abstract—Spectrum management is the process of decidinghow radio frequency (RF) spectrum may be used in a geographicalregion and who may use it. Traditionally, spectrummanagement has been executed as an administrativeand political process with the intent of making lasting decisions.Its lack of responsiveness and resolution causes muchspectrum to lay fallow since most users rarely need spectrumcontinuously and ubiquitously. In this paper, we proposean alternative spectrum management approach thatenables management at a greater temporal and spatial resolutionusing networks and wireless ad hoc and mesh networkingtechnologies. Three different spectrum managementideas are described. The Synchronous Collision Resolution*(SCR) MAC protocol enables a strict arbitration ofspectrum access based on spectrum rights thus enabling ahierarchy of networks in the same spectrum that alwaysguarantees the primary rights holder precedence. Second, itautonomously manages the use of an arbitrary number ofchannels in the same network. The third and most excitingidea is a new fast command and control model for spectrummanagement. An underlying ad hoc network built using theNodes State Routing* (NSR) protocol is used to track andmanage the use of spectrum of attached RF emitters. NSRtracks the state of the network by collecting and disseminatingthe states of the nodes. These states can include relevantinformation on the spectrum these nodes are using and areobserving others use. Thus the network supports trackingand monitoring spectrum use spatially in near real time.Spectrum management utilities built on top of the networkcould allow users and spectrum managers to rapidly negotiatethe use of spectrum and assist spectrum managers inidentifying unused spectrum and emitters causing harmfulinterference. We conclude with proposed standardizationand regulatory changes to make this feasible.

Index Terms— spectrum management, ad hoc networking,MANET, synchronous collision resolution, SCR, node staterouting, NSR, fast command and control model, FCCM

Cite: John A. Stine, "Enabling Secondary Spectrum Markets Using Ad Hoc and Mesh Networking Protocols," Journal of Communications, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 26-37, 2006.