Is Spectrum Sharing in the Radar Bands Commercially Attractive? : A Regulatory and Business Overview

• The need to meet users’ expectations in the ”mobile data avalanche” represents a significant challenge for mobile networks operators (MNOs). More spectrum is a natural way to meet these requirements in a cost and time-efficient way; but new, exclusively licensed, spectrum is increasingly hard to come by. Instead, vertical spectrum sharing has been discussed as a potential solution for finding additional spectrum for mobile communications. In this paper, we focus on vertical spectrum sharing in the radar bands for providing short-range wireless access, e.g. indoors and in ”hotspots” that ”offload” mobile traffic demand. We propose a methodology for dealing with the technical, regulatory and business aspects of deploying large-scale wireless networks. Moreover, we identify the following criteria for achieving business success: spectrum availability, availability of low-cost end user devices, system scalability in terms of number of concurrently used devices and finally, the ability to guarantee a quality of service for the users.Our technical availability assessment has identified geo-location database support as necessary technical enabler and detect-and-avoid mechanism as a beneficial technical enabler for improving sharing conditions. Therefore, we propose a sharing mechanism based on three components: a central spectrum manager witha geo-location database controlling the aggregate interference, a spectrum sensing mechanism and a fast feedback between the radars and the central spectrum manager. Moreover, Licensed Shared Access (LSA) was found to be the suitable regulatory framework to support the proposed sharing mechanism and regulatory policies in real-life implementation. Our business feasibility assessment concludes that there is enough spectrum available for indoor and hotspots communication in urban areas in the radar bandsto make a large scale system commercially viable. Service quality can be guaranteedand there is a strong potential to construct low-cost devices. Uncertainties do, however, remain regarding the spectrum access cost.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik -- Telekommunikation (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering -- Telecommunications (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik -- Kommunikationssystem (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering -- Communication Systems (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

radar bands

short range communication

regulatory framework

business analysis.

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