Dynamic LSA for 5G networks the ADEL perspective

Exploiting additional radio spectrum is key to respond to the unprecedented capacity demands of mobile broadband communication systems in recent years. In fact, most of the frequency bands suitable for mobile communications are already in use by other radio services, and spectrum refarming is usually not possible or constitutes a highly time-consuming procedure. At the same time, several field measurement campaigns have shown that the occupied spectrum below 6GHz is severely underutilized, i.e. there exist “spectrum holes” in the time, frequency, and space dimensions, pointing to the possibility of using spectrum sharing as a mean to better exploit additional spectral resources. Licensed shared access (LSA) is a recent spectrum licensing paradigm that allows licensees to share the licensed spectrum of incumbents without causing harmful interference and ensuring a certain quality-of-service (QoS) for both types of players. The EU-funded project ADEL aims to enhance the current LSA paradigm by introducing 1) dynamic radio resource management (RRM), 2) sensing reasoning, based on database-assisted collaborative sensor networking, and 3) an extension to the LSA architecture that allows a more effective RRM, increasing QoS satisfaction and policy enforcement for all players, finally leading to an overall improved spectrum utilization. The key features of ADEL´s enhanced LSA paradigm are outlined throughout the remainder of this paper.