Essentials of modern spectrum management

Are you fully up-to-speed on today's modern spectrum management tools? As regulators move away from traditional spectrum management methods, introduce spectrum trading and consider opening up more spectrum to commons, do you understand the implications of these developments for your own networks? This 2007 book was the first to describe and evaluate modern spectrum management tools. Expert authors offer insights into the technical, economic and management issues involved. Auctions, administrative pricing, trading, property rights and spectrum commons are all explained. A series of real-world case studies from around the world is used to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches adopted by different regulators, and valuable lessons are drawn from these. This concise and authoritative resource is a must-have for telecom regulators, network planners, designers and technical managers at mobile and fixed operators and broadcasters, and academics involved in the technology and economics of radio spectrum.

Author Notes

William Webb received both a Ph.D. in mobile radio and an M.B.A. from Southampton University.

Dr. Webb is director of strategy at Motorola. He is a fellow of the IEEE, a senior member of the IEEE, and a chartered engineer. Dr. Webb holds four patents and has also authored Introduction to Wireless Local Loop, Second Edition; The Complete Wireless Communications Professional; and Understanding Cellular Radio (Artech House 2000, 1999, 1998). He is listed in ÂWhoÂs Who in AmericaÂ.

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Acknowledgements	p. xi
I Emerging problems with the current spectrum management approach	p. 1
1 Current spectrum management methods and their shortcomings	p. 3
1.1 Why spectrum needs to be managed	p. 3
1.2 The current management mechanisms	p. 4
1.3 Shortcomings of the current system	p. 6
1.4 Alternative management approaches	p. 8
1.5 How this book addresses the new approaches	p. 9
Reference	p. 9
2 How changing technology is impacting spectrum management	p. 11
2.1 Technology used to lend itself to discrete allocations	p. 11
2.2 Multi-modal radios	p. 12
2.3 Cognitive and software defined radios	p. 13
2.4 Ultra-wideband	p. 20
2.5 Summary	p. 23
3 Alternative ways of dividing spectrum	p. 25
3.1 Spectrum has been divided by frequency	p. 25
3.2 UWB raises the possibility of division by power	p. 26
3.3 Other divisions are also possible	p. 33
3.4 Summary: in practice, changes to spectrum division would be minor	p. 34
II Markets	p. 35
4 Market solutions	p. 37
4.1 Introduction	p. 37
4.2 Market methods	p. 38
4.3 Market failures	p. 40
4.4 Conclusion	p. 41
5 Auctions	p. 43
5.1 Introduction	p. 43
5.2 Auctions versus administrative methods of assignment	p. 46
5.3 Theory of auctions	p. 49
5.4 Auction formats	p. 51
5.5 Auction logistics	p. 76
5.6 Conclusion	p. 81
References	p. 82
6 Spectrum trading: secondary markets	p. 85
6.1 Introduction	p. 85
6.2 Radio spectrum and market forces	p. 87
6.3 Spectrum trading, markets and efficiency	p. 88
6.4 Objections to spectrum trading	p. 92
6.5 The implementation of spectrum trading in the UK	p. 94
6.6 Trading in other countries	p. 97
6.7 Conclusion	p. 103
References	p. 104
7 Technical issues with property rights	p. 105
7.1 Introduction	p. 105
7.2 Key elements of property rights	p. 106
7.3 The problem of deployment density	p. 110
7.4 Calculating noise floor levels	p. 112
7.5 Making a property rights system work in practice	p. 112
7.6 UWB and property rights	p. 115
7.7 Managing interference	p. 116
7.8 A detailed look at the definition of property rights	p. 117
7.9 Summary	p. 121
References	p. 122
8 Economic issues with property rights	p. 123
8.1 Creating property rights: economic aspects	p. 123
8.2 Principles for the allocation of property rights	p. 124
8.3 Underlays and overlays	p. 128
8.4 Defining property rights for spectrum: commercial and economic issues	p. 131
8.5 Conclusion	p. 136
References	p. 137
9 Competition issues relating to spectrum	p. 139
9.1 Introduction	p. 139
9.2 Competition issues in a command-and-control regime	p. 141
9.3 Competition issues under a market regime for spectrum management	p. 143
9.4 Spectrum caps	p. 147
9.5 Conclusions	p. 148
10 Band management	p. 151
10.1 Introduction	p. 151
10.2 Types of band manager	p. 152
10.3 Fundamentals of band management	p. 154
10.4 The business case for band management	p. 157
10.5 Summary and conclusions	p. 163
Reference	p. 164
III Regulation	p. 165
11 Incentive based spectrum prices: theory	p. 167
11.1 Introduction	p. 167
11.2 Economic efficiency and radio spectrum	p. 169
11.3 Productive efficiency and radio spectrum	p. 171
11.4 Pricing radio spectrum to achieve economic efficiency	p. 174
11.5 The Smith-NERA method of calculating spectrum prices	p. 175
11.6 Setting spectrum prices to achieve efficiency using the Smith-NERA method	p. 178
11.7 The interaction between spectrum pricing and spectrum trading	p. 181
11.8 Conclusion	p. 184
References	p. 185
12 Incentive based spectrum pricing: practicalities	p. 187
12.1 Introduction	p. 187
12.2 Applying administrative incentive prices: some issues	p. 188
12.3 Calculating AIP in practice: case study of fixed links in the UK	p. 193
12.4 Incentive based spectrum charges in other countries	p. 199
12.5 Conclusion	p. 200
References	p. 202
13 How the commons works	p. 203
13.1 Introduction	p. 203
13.2 The economics of the commons	p. 204
13.3 The likelihood of congestion in radio spectrum	p. 209
13.4 Quasi-commons: UWB and cognitive radio	p. 220
13.5 Summary	p. 220
References	p. 221
14 Commons or non-commons?	p. 223
14.1 Introduction	p. 223
14.2 The use of market mechanisms to determine the amount of spectrum commons	p. 223
14.3 The "total spectrum needed" approach	p. 224
14.4 The "band-by-band" approach	p. 225
14.5 Summary	p. 229
15 Is public sector spectrum management different?	p. 231
15.1 Introduction	p. 231
15.2 Is public sector spectrum special?	p. 232
15.3 Intermediate steps to encourage efficiency in public sector spectrum use	p. 234
15.4 Public sector incentive problems	p. 237
15.5 Conclusions	p. 238
References	p. 238
16 Are developing countries different?	p. 239
16.1 Introduction	p. 239
16.2 Consequences for spectrum management	p. 239
16.3 Conclusion	p. 242
References	p. 242
IV Conclusions	p. 245
17 Conclusions	p. 247
17.1 A reminder of the problem	p. 247
17.2 Key conclusions	p. 247
17.3 In summary	p. 252
Further reading	p. 253
Abbreviations	p. 257
Author biographies	p. 259
Subject index	p. 263

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