I think we need to stipulate that discussions containing all sorts of vectors into the economic and political nexus are rarely, if ever, a situation where technology considerations are a dominant factor in the outcome. The technical analysis and voluminous reports always look great but we need to understand that it's really about markets and who gets to play, or typically in the case of the communications industry, how the oligopoly will dominate.
Spectrum sensing techniques are made awkward, a priori, by the "regulatory process", within which I would include the IEEE proceedings. For your reading entertainment, my perspective on the "white spaces" (WS) goes something like this:
1) The first two R&O's from the FCC are insufficient in achieving the stated objective of opening-up this resource to "the public" in any meaningful way, or to stimulate the creation of "competitive infrastructure." Those objectives are anathema to the nexus. The existing R&O's are harbingers of mirth in this regard.
2) The WS regulatory process is being crafted via the "command and control" approach, which means the extant oligopoly and friends. If control goes into the cloud then it follows that those who "manage" the cloud databases and devices effectively control the resource. However, although the nexus may be able to jam other emitters they can't shut them down. This whole proceeding and the principles it embodies are an onerous development - we're going in the wrong direction.
3) The notion of parceling spectrum out into variants of user profiles (power levels, protection zones, frequencies, fixed vs portable devices, antenna heights, etc.) is not only complex and more impractical than sensing technology properly implemented, sensing technology is every bit as proven as what is being proposed. That's not to say more work is not required on software protocols, but "It won't work" rings hollow. The cloud model not only represents the anachronistic thinking of the current resource allocation regime, it's technically unproven. Worse, it's limiting in terms of use and future value to the supposed beneficiaries - the people. Moreover, especially in these bands (tropospheric ducting), it seems ludicrous to claim that any spatial area of photons can be controlled in real-time without locking everything down tightly into the command and control model, which is exactly what is going to happen. It's kind of like a layered "guard band" approach - old school stuff.
4) Spectrum sensing allows innovation.
Clearly, my preference is to give Shared Spectrum Co. "a go" in the real world, but the white spaces is unlikely to be its opportunity, but not for technical reasons. It's a safe bet that the nexus model with prevail in the upcoming FCC R&O for the usual reasons. There are ways to open-up this resource in meaningful ways for the benefit of the general population but unlikely to happen here - at least with the imprimatur of the nexus and its apparatchiks.
Required: an end-run to the HFW model.
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