Assessing user decision behaviors for Dynamic Spectrum Sharing and pricing models

Dynamic Spectrum Sharing is an emerging spectrum access model for increasing access to RF spectrum by commercial, government, and military systems. Rather than accessing spectrum based on pre-determined frequency assignments, dynamic spectrum sharing allows users to autonomously identify and dynamically access available spectrum based on sets of pre-determined rules. While various spectrum sharing architectures are being pursued, no analysis is published regarding the expected decision behaviors that dynamic spectrum users would make regarding those models. In particular, it is not known how uncertainty created by spectrum usage volatility or pricing volatility will influence spectrum access decisions. Reducing uncertainty through information fusion and probabilistic reasoning can provide reduced volatility and understanding the relationships between situational awareness uncertainty and volatility is vital in determining the technologies, algorithms, and business models needed by spectrum providers and dynamic spectrum users. This paper identifies the fundamental elements for assessing dynamic spectrum user uncertainty and behaviors and identifies decision trades that impact secondary spectrum providers. A spectrum utility model using multi-attribute utility theory forms the users' decision model, allowing trades analyses to be conducted among preferences for key attributes such as channel capacity, monetary cost, and interference potential. The model is used here to demonstrate the impact of spectrum usage volatility on preferences between free spectrum access without access guarantees and fee-based spectrum access with access guarantees. Analysis also defines decision trades between fee-based and auction-based spectrum pricing, where auction pricing volatility is a primary factor in trades between expected spectrum cost and capacity.