The viability of spectrum trading markets

Spectrum trading markets are of growing interest to many spectrum management agencies. They are motivated by their desire to increase the use of market based mechanisms for spectrum management and reduce their emphasis on command and control methods. Despite the liberalization of regulations on spectrum trading in some countries, spectrum markets have not yet emerged as a key spectrum assignment component. The lack of liquidity in these markets is sometimes cited as a primary factor in this outcome. This work focuses on determining the conditions for viability of spectrum trading markets by considering scenarios with different market structures, number of trading participants and amount of tradable spectrum. We make use of Agent-Based Computational Economics (ACE) to analyze each market scenario and the behaviors of its participants. Our models indicate that spectrum markets can be viable in a service if sufficient numbers of market participants exist and the amount of tradable spectrum is balanced to the demand. We use the results of this analysis and the characteristics of the viable markets found to make recommendations for the design of spectrum trading markets. Further work will explore more complicated scenarios. ©2010 IEEE

Spectrum trading with interference rights

Spectrum, which supports the transmission of sound, data, and video, is critical to the implementation of mobile connected society. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been seeking policies that offer more spectrum access opportunities, such as secondary spectrum market and TV white space. In this paper, we develop the idea of trading spectrum in Interference Right. It means to alleviate the spectrum scarcity by cooperative spectrum usage and making the spectrum market as liquid as possible. We use some plausible case studies to illustrate the characteristics and features. The paper therefore includes a detailed description of trading procedures along with some first order quantitative modeling of the cases coupled with qualitative analysis. © 2012 ICST

Wireless network virtualization: Opportunities for spectrum sharing in the 3.5GHz band

In this paper, we evaluate the opportunities that Wireless Network Virtualization (WNV) can bring for spectrum sharing by focusing on the regulatory framework that has been deployed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the 3.5GHz band. We pair this innovative regulatory approach with another novel arrangement, Wireless Network Virtualization, and thus assess the resulting opportunities from the perspectives of regulation, technology and economics. To this end, we have established a comprehensive foundation for further exploration and development of virtualized networks that would provide significant opportunities for enabling and enhancing current sharing arrangements

The hinges of destiny: A decision analysis of spectrum users' choices

Dynamic spectrum access (DSA) has been a technological approach that has received considerable research attention over the past decade. At the same time, the relative paucity of deployed systems using some of these technologies speaks to either a mismatch between research priorities and practical needs, regulatory immaturity, technology immaturity, or a combination of these. In this paper, we examine the business decision that a spectrum entrant must take with regard to technology choice. We use a simple decision-analytic framework using standard Net Present Value (NPV) calculations to analyze that decision. Our conclusion is that, the spectrum decision is time dependent. Exclusive use offers a higher NPV than the alternatives in the long run, but it takes time for exclusive use to become the dominant choice. Cooperative sharing provides the second highest NPV when the spectrum market is liquid, followed by opportunistic sharing under optimistic spectrum availability and contention assumptions. If our assumptions are relatively close to reality, it is therefore not surprising that we do not see greater adoption of DSA technologies-it is not the top choice for spectrum entrants with a long term view. The second choice, cooperative sharing, does occur, but in the form of MVNO agreements. The last option for a spectrum entrant is opportunistic sharing. Why should an entrant settle for the third best approach? © 2012 IEEE

Dimensions of cooperative spectrum sharing: Rights and enforcement

Sharing of radio spectrum requires a careful and nuanced understanding of the rights of incumbents and spectrum entrants. In addition, the dynamics of stakeholders can be understood by examining how various rights are arranged (and rearranged) among them. Importantly, understanding the rights and their distribution is the predicate to developing rational and useful enforcement approaches. In this paper, we show that spectrum sharing involves a rearrangement of the rights associated with radio spectrum among stakeholders. We show how this rearrangement of rights implies the definition of new bundles of rights, appropriate to each particular sharing scenario. We discover these rights - and their (re)arrangement - by examining several cases of spectrum use. We begin with the rights associated with exclusive use and proceed to consider rights arrangement in commons and different spectrum sharing configurations. Further, in the case of commons, we explicitly examine how governance of commons can affect the rights distribution in spectrum. In each case, the bundles of rights associated with each stakeholder changes. New bundles of rights have consequences, not only on the behavior of spectrum users but also on the enforcement process. Our examination of the bundles of rights shows that each rearrangement results in different approaches to enforcement. We demonstrate this by revisiting enforcement in the cases we examine. © 2014 IEEE

Coopetive spectrum trading - Creating endogenous spectrum holes

Dynamic spectrum access has been proposed to address the spectrum scarcity. Based on this access mode, secondary users are allowed to opportunistically operate when primary users are absent. Secondary Users are, however, required to relinquish the spectrum upon return of the incumbent spectrum holder. Although it improves spectrum utility, opportunistic spectrum access limits secondary users' access to exogenous spectrum holes vacated by primary users. We argue that spectrum holes should be endogenous, enabled by incentives to incumbent users to increase spectrum availability, while mitigating risk. To this end, we take a different perspective on dynamic spectrum sharing and propose a coopetive framework, whereby primary and secondary users engage in a cooperative, yet competitive, auction-driven spectrum sharing to enhance spectrum usage. In this framework, the primary users'spectrum is organized in three bands, namely exclusive usage, usage right and management right bands. Based on this structure, spectrum is traded as financial options to increase trading flexibility and capture the value primary and secondary users attach to spectrum access and usage. Spectrum trading between primary and secondary users is formalized as a utility maximization problem. Approximate solutions to this problem are derived and their performance is analyzed. The results show that spectrum trading, which combines revocable and exclusive leasing, provides higher utilities for both primary and secondary users. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

How can polycentric governance of spectrum work?

Spectrum policy in the US (and throughout most of the world) consists generally of a set of nationally determined policies that apply uniformly to all localities. However, it is also true that there is considerable variation in the features (e.g., traffic demand or population density), requirements and constraints of spectrum use on a local basis. Global spectrum policies designed to resolve a situation in New York City could well be overly restrictive for communities in rural areas (such as central Wyoming). At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that more permissive policies of central Wyoming would not create problems for NYC (by ensuring, for example, that relocated radios adapt to local policies). Notions of polycentric governance that have been articulated by the late E. Ostrom [16] argue that greater good can be achieved by allowing for local autonomy in resource allocation. Shared access to spectrum is generally mediated through one of several technologies. As shown in [21], approaches mediated by geolocation databases are the most cost effective in today's technology. In the database oriented Spectrum Access System, or SAS, proposed by the FCC, users are granted (renewable) usage rights based on their location for a limited period of time. Because this system grants usage rights on a case-by-case basis, it may also allow for greater local autonomy while still maintaining global coordination. For example, it would be technically feasible for the database to include parameters such as transmit power, protocol, and bandwidth. Thus, they may provide the platform by which polycentric governance might come to spectrum management. In this paper, we explore, through some case examples, what polycentric governance of spectrum might look like and how this could be implemented in a database-driven spectrum management system. In many ways this paper is a complement to [20], which evaluted emerging SAS architectures using Ostrom's socioeconomic theory. This paper explores how a SAS-based system could be constructed that is consistent with Ostrom's polycentric governance ideas. Our approach is to address spectrum management as an emergent phenomenon rather than a top down system. This paper will describe the key details of this system and present some initial modeling results in comparison with the traditional global model of spectrum regulation. It will also discuss some of the concerns associated with this approach

Coopetition spectrum trading - Creating endogenous spectrum holes

Dynamic spectrum access is an important way to alleviate the spectrum scarcity. Traditionally, secondary users are allowed to opportunistically operate when primary users are absent and buy idle bands from primary users. Although it improves the spectrum utility to some extents, it is not enough. In this paper, we argue that spectrum hole should be endogenous which means they should be negotiated by primary and secondary users. We proposed a novel spectrum sharing scheme with spectrum usage and management right. Further, we suggest spectrum trading as a financial option to capture the realistic usage and increase the trading flexibility. We show the superior of our model for primary users in deterministic and dynamic leasing environments. © 2013 ICST - The Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

Enforcement and spectrum sharing: A case study of the 1695-1710 MHz band

Spectrum sharing is a new reality for spectrum users. Implementing sharing regimes on a non-opportunistic basis means that sharing agreements must be implemented. To have meaning, those agreements must be enforceable. We make this discussion more concrete by reasoning about enforcement in a particular spectrum band (1695-1710 MHz) that is currently being proposed for sharing between commercial services (LTE) and an incumbent spectrum user in the US. We examine three enforcement approaches, exclusion zones, protection zones and pure ex post and consider their implications in terms of cost elements, opportunity cost, and their adaptability. © 2013 ICST - The Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

Socio-technical considerations for Spectrum Access System (SAS) design

Spectrum Access Systems (SAS) are emerging as a principal mechanism for managing the sharing of radio spectrum. The design of the SAS depends on the specification of spectrum property rights and the governance system by which those rights are enforced. Current perspectives on SAS design have been too limited, focusing narrowly on the technical components without adequate consideration of socio-technical factors that will impact the likely success of any SAS design. In this paper, we apply the social science literature on the management of common pool resources (CPR) to the design challenge for the SAS. Heretofore, too much of the discussion has focused on an overly simplistic characterization of the spectrum rights design space as a dichotomous choice between licensed v. unlicensed, markets v. government, and exclusive v. open. The CPR framework forces consideration of a wider class of design options, positioning the specifications of spectrum property rights more appropriately along a multi-dimensional continuum of rights bundles. The CPR framework highlights the importance of considering formal and informal, multi-layered institutional and market-based interactions among SAS stakeholders when designing a resource management system. We will explain how this leads one to view the SAS as a polycentric governance system (using the terminology in the CPR literature). By examining the economic and social context of spectrum sharing, we assert that these emerging systems must be sufficiently flexible to adapt to various forms of resource governance, which refers to the process by which rights are distributed among stakeholders, how those rights are enforced, and how the resource is managed. We illustrate how the insights from the CPR literature might be implemented in a prototype SAS architecture