The Telecommunications/ICT for Development Laboratory (T/ICT4D) of the Abdus Salam  International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP, Trieste, Italy), in collaboration with the  International  elecommunication Union - Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU/BDT),  the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) and the National Institute of  Telecommunications (NIT, Poland), is organising a School on Open Spectrum and  Applications of White Spaces Technologies to be held in Trieste from 3 to 14 March  2014. 
In the last couple of years a new opportunity for spectrum use has emerged in the form of TV White Spaces (TVWS). Originally conceived as a technology that could take advantage of the guard bands or "white spaces" that were left between television channels to prevent interference, TVWS has the potential to address research challenges of remote academic institutions, as well as opening up alternatives for building community wireless networks. 

Traditional spectrum allocation methods are unlikely to be able to cope with the exponential  growth in demand for broadband access in emerging markets. There is a pressing need to examine alternative models of spectrum allocation. Dynamic spectrum sharing based on software and cognitive radio can play a significant role in tomorrow's telecommunication systems. With the final goal of connecting Research and Education Centres to the Internet with low cost means to improve Internet access, the School will examine the state of the art in Open Spectrum and TVWS technologies and emerging regulations. The school will address the latest information from TVWS pilots around the world and will include hands-on sessions. 

The following key topics will be discussed: 

• Radio Physics 
• Software Defined Radio 
• Cognitive Radio 
• Open Spectrum Acess 
• TV White Spaces Technologies 

Case studies from TV White deployments will be presented.