Secondary User Access in LTE Architecture Based on a Base-Station-Centric Framework With Dynamic Pricing

Dynamic spectrum access (DSA) techniques based on the exclusive-use model provide a huge opportunity for wireless service providers (WSPs) to improve the spectrum utilization in their licensed bands and generate additional profits by allowing temporary wireless access to unsubscribed secondary users (SUs). This paper presents a techno-economic analysis for regulated SU access based on a novel base station (BS)-centric framework, where SUs coexist with the subscribers, i.e., primary users (PUs), on a mutually exclusive basis. Considering the highly competitive WSP environment, the proposed framework is aimed at maximizing the localized spectrum utilization within the static spectrum licensed to the WSP and assumes no cooperation and no spectrum sharing among WSPs, thus making this a business case for implementation. The dynamic incentive-based SU pricing model proposed in this paper has the inherent capability of call admission control and, hence, is useful in attracting SUs to obtain temporary wireless access during periods of low PU demand, thus improving spectrum usage in the temporal domain. Although SU access is regulated by the WSP at their BS, the SUs have the freedom to connect or handoff to their preferred BS in the area based on the SU price quoted by the WSP. The implementation of the proposed framework to Long Term Evolution (LTE) infrastructure requires minimal enhancements and can be potentially attractive to WSPs, since the SU devices in this framework do not require spectrum sensing cognitive capabilities. Considering all the aforementioned aspects, this paper can be considered an intermediate step in the evolution toward complete DSA.