NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: Network Economics for Secondary Spectrum Ecosystems

新兴的认知无线电技术为无线业务提供了新的解决方案。具有CR能力的服务提供商可以从二级频谱市场按需获取频谱，以避免支付巨额频谱许可费，从而大大降低了进入无线业务的门槛。因此，可以预见，小型和本地二级无线服务提供商（SSP）将蓬勃发展，将无线业务从少数几个大型运营商主导的市场转变为竞争更加激烈的市场。现有的二级频谱市场模型主要考虑由大型SSP组成的市场，其中假设每个SSP具有足够的二级无线电资源和覆盖范围以独立地服务最终用户。然而，在实践中，这些模型不可避免地排除了大量的小型和本地SSP，这些SSP没有足够的资源和覆盖范围来独立地满足终端用户的需求（例如，用于高速率接入或长距离路由），导致市场竞争力降低，并因此损害了市场效率。本项目将研究一种新的竞争与合作频谱市场框架，通过这种框架，小型和本地服务提供商将合作提供服务，以保持更多的市场份额，更好的盈利能力，更强的市场竞争力和更高的市场效率。该项目如果成功，将大大提高我们对由主频谱销售商、SSP、最终用户和人类组成的二级频谱生态系统的网络经济学的理解，并将有助于经济上可行和可持续的频谱市场的实际部署。(1)对于短期服务，假设市场中每个参与者都是完全理性的，二级频谱市场首先被建模为现货市场。建立了一个真实采购拍卖模型，研究了在多种市场条件下的最优市场机制及其策略防御性。(2)对于长期服务，该项目将研究期货市场的潜力和影响，其中利用期权定价和套期保值等方法，利用服务在时域的可预测性来提高市场效率。(3)该项目将使用行为经济学的方法来研究非理性和人为因素对市场效率的影响。该项目还将实施一项全面的教育计划，以扩大其影响，包括将研究与本科和研究生教育相结合，招募少数民族和代表性不足的学生并向他们进行宣传，以及向公众进行有效的宣传和宣传。

The emerging cognitive radio (CR) technology provides new solutions to the wireless service business. A CR-capable service provider can acquire spectrum on demand from the secondary spectrum market to avoid paying the huge spectrum licensing fees, significantly lowering the threshold of entry to the wireless business. As a result, it is foreseeable that small and local secondary wireless service providers (SSPs) will flourish, transforming the wireless business from one dictated by few giant carriers to a much more competitive marketplace. Existing secondary spectrum market models mainly consider a market comprised by big SSPs, where every SSP is assumed to have sufficient secondary radio resource and coverage to independently service end users. In practice, however, these models inevitably exclude the large number of small and local SSPs that do not have enough resource and coverage to independently satisfy the demand of end users (e.g., for high-rate access or long-range routing) from the market, leading to reduced market competitiveness, and henceforth compromised market efficiency. This project will investigate a novel competition-and-collaboration spectrum market framework, whereby small and local SSPs will collaborate in providing service to retain more market shares, better profitability, stronger market competitiveness, and higher market efficiency. This project, if successful, will significantly advance our understanding on the network economics of the secondary spectrum ecosystem comprised by primary spectrum sellers, SSPs, end users, and human, and will contribute to the real-world deployment of economically feasible and sustainable spectrum market.The proposed research will follow three thrusts. (1) For short-term services, assuming perfect rationality for every player in the market, the secondary spectrum market is first modeled as a spot market. A truthful procurement auction model is proposed to study the optimal market mechanisms and their strategy proofness under a variety of market conditions. (2) For long-term services, the project will study the potential and implication of the futures market, in which service predictability in the time domain is exploited to improve market efficiency, using methods such as option pricing and hedging. (3) The rational-player assumption is released and the project will study the impact of irrationality and human factors on market efficiency using methods from Behavioral Economics. This project will also carry out a comprehensive educational plan to broaden its impact, including integrating research with undergraduate and graduate education, recruiting and outreaching to minority and under-represented students, and efficient dissemination and outreaching to the general public.