Towards Dynamic Wireless Capacity Management for the Masses

In this paper we speculate that, with the technological elements already in place, an automated dynamic management of the RF spectrum in urban residential settings will soon be possible. Dense urban environments are increasingly facing RF spectrum congestion, in particular in the ISM bands. The Internet of Things is only expected to add to the pressures. In this work we outline an architecture that will analyze and resolve spectrum congestion. We are motivated by the adaptive and modifiable nature of existing protocols, inspired by existing capacity planning and channel allocation schemes from cellular networks, and emboldened by the synergies possible via software–defined radios. The cloud computing infrastructure can be leveraged to perform most compute-intensive tasks required towards this goal. We are encouraged that the approach is viable by the relatively static, in the local sense, topology that most residential networks exhibit. To be able to support a wide range of device capabilities we consider the possibility of using a mix of techniques, ranging from advanced physical layer, to special MAC coordination, to higher-layer protocol operations to indirectly influence the operation of legacy equipment.