The viability of spectrum trading markets

Spectrum trading markets are of growing interest to many spectrum management agencies. They are motivated by their desire to increase the use of market based mechanisms for spectrum management and reduce their emphasis on command and control methods. Despite the liberalization of regulations on spectrum trading in some countries, spectrum markets have not yet emerged as a key spectrum assignment component. The lack of liquidity in these markets is sometimes cited as a primary factor in this outcome. This work focuses on determining the conditions for viability of spectrum trading markets by considering scenarios with different market structures, number of trading participants and amount of tradable spectrum. We make use of Agent-Based Computational Economics (ACE) to analyze each market scenario and the behaviors of its participants. Our models indicate that spectrum markets can be viable in a service if sufficient numbers of market participants exist and the amount of tradable spectrum is balanced to the demand. We use the results of this analysis and the characteristics of the viable markets found to make recommendations for the design of spectrum trading markets. Further work will explore more complicated scenarios.