Spectrum Sharing in the Shadow of Uncertainty: Risk, Incentives and Investment

政府和/或商业实体之间共享频谱有可能释放大量频谱，以满足移动宽带服务需求的急剧增长。虽然在开发这种共享技术方面做了大量工作，但商业服务提供商广泛采用共享绝不是一个必然的结论。为了实现频谱共享的潜力，该项目正在解决三个基本问题。第一个问题涉及开发模型和技术，以降低与二次频谱共享相关的风险。例如，由于主要用户-S活动的不确定性，这种风险就会出现。目前正在研究不同技术(例如，更灵活的设备)和不同合同安排(例如，提供“频谱保险”的可能性)对此类风险的影响。第二个问题是解决不同频谱协议和相关风险如何影响服务提供商之间的竞争和战略行为。这影响了他们投资基础设施和开发新的频谱共享技术的决定。最后一个问题是了解如何平衡使用频谱提供公共产品(如国防)的好处和使用频谱提供商业宽带接入的好处。确定与每种服务类型相关的激励问题和交易成本可以导致更好的分享机制，从而产生有效的结果。

Sharing of spectrum among government and/or commercial entities has the potential to unleash large amounts of spectrum to meet the dramatic increase in demand for mobile broadband services. Although there has been substantial work on developing technologies for such sharing, the adoption of extensive sharing by commercial service providers is by no means a forgone conclusion. This project is addressing three fundamental issues that need to be resolved in order for spectrum sharing to realize its potential.The first issue is concerned with developing models and techniques for mitigating the risks associated with secondary spectrum sharing. Such risks arise, for example, due to uncertainty in a primary user?s activity. The impact of both different technologies (e.g., more flexible devices) and different contractual arrangements (e.g., the possibility of offering "spectrum insurance") on such risks are being studied.The second issue is addressing how different spectrum agreements and associated risk may affect competition and strategic behavior among service providers. That affects their decisions to invest in both infrastructure and develop new spectrum sharing technologies.The final issue is understanding how to balance the benefits of using spectrum to provide a public good, such as defense, against its use to provide commercial broadband access. Identifying associated incentive issues and transaction costs with each type of service can lead to better sharing mechanisms that produce efficient outcomes.