Microsoft Sniffs Out Unused Wireless Spectrum

alphadogg writes "Microsoft researchers have designed a scheme for measuring whether licensed radio frequencies are actually being used so unlicensed devices can use it, something that may become necessary as demand for wireless applications grows. The architecture, called SpecNet, would sense and map where spectrum is being used and more particularly where it's not — so-called white spaces, according to a paper being presented next week at the USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation in Cambridge, Mass."

Isn't this contradictory?

[RightSaidFred99]

If you're using licensed spectrum, you must be licensed. So your "unlicensed" device must be licensed to use the licensed spectrum. It's not like the FCC's going to be like "Oh, well you are not licensed to use spectrum xx.x, but if nobody else is then what the hell, go ahead!". So really this is a licensed device that can optionally use unlicensed spectrum.