Unlocking the Deployment of Spectrum Sharing With a Policy Enforcement Framework

Spectrum sharing has been proposed as a promising way to increase the efficiency of spectrum usage by allowing incumbent operators (IOs) to share their allocated radio resources with licensee operators (LOs), under a set of agreed rules. The goal is to maximize a common utility, such as the sum rate throughput, while maintaining the level of service required by the IOs. However, this is only guaranteed under the assumption that all “players” respect the agreed sharing rules. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive framework for licensed shared access (LSA) networks that discourages LO misbehavior. Our framework is built around three core functions: misbehavior detection via the employment of a dedicated sensing network; a penalization function; and, a behavior-driven resource allocation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that these components are combined for the monitoring/policing of the spectrum under the LSA framework. Moreover, a novel simulator for LSA is provided as an open access tool, serving the purpose of testing and validating our proposed techniques via a set of extensive system-level simulations in the context of mobile network operators, where IOs and several competing LOs are considered. The results demonstrate that violation of the agreed sharing rules can lead to a great loss of resources for the misbehaving LOs, the amount of which is controlled by the system. Finally, we promote that including a policy enforcement function as part of the spectrum sharing system can be beneficial for the LSA system, since it can guarantee compliance with the spectrum sharing rules and limit the short-term benefits arising from misbehavior.