Is spectrum sharing in the radar bands commercially attractive?—a regulatory and business overview

Abstract

AbstractThe need to meet users' expectations in the ‘mobile data avalanche’ represents a significant challenge for mobile network operators. More spectrum is a natural way to meet these requirements in a cost and time‐efficient way, but new, exclusively licenced spectrum is increasingly hard to come by. Instead, vertical spectrum sharing has been discussed as a potential solution for finding additional spectrum. In this paper, we focus on vertical spectrum sharing in the radar bands for providing short‐range wireless access, for example, indoors and in hotspots that ‘offload’ traffic demand. We propose a methodology for analysing the technical, regulatory and business aspects of deploying large‐scale wireless networks. Then, we identify the following criteria for achieving business success: spectrum availability, availability of low‐cost end‐user devices, system scalability in terms of number of concurrently used devices and finally the ability to guarantee a quality of service for the users. Our technical availability assessment has identified geo‐location database as the necessary technical enabler and detect‐and‐avoid mechanism as an auxiliary enabler for improving sharing conditions. Moreover, licenced shared access was found to be the suitable regulatory framework to support the proposed sharing mechanism and regulatory policies in real‐life implementation. Our business feasibility assessment concludes that there is enough spectrum available for indoor and hotspots communication in urban areas in the radar bands to make a large‐scale system commercially viable. Service quality can be guaranteed, and there is a strong potential to construct low‐cost devices. Uncertainties do, however, remain regarding the spectrum access cost. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.