Spectrum micro-trading for mobile operators

Spectrum trading is an important tool for increasing overall and local spectrum utilization, and to enable access to new and additional spectrum for mobile operators. However, the current spectrum trading regimes usually require long times to execute a trade, hence limiting the flexibility over short timescales in addition to limiting the granularity of the bandwidth and geographical units that may be traded. In this article we discuss the concept of spectrum micro-trading to enable trading of spectrum on the micro-scale in at least three dimensions: the micro-spatial, micro-temporal, and micro-frequency scales. An ecosystem for spectrum micro-trading is presented along with the most important metrics for spectrum micro-trading evaluation. Results from a simulation study for mobile operators, where spectrum is traded via auction, show that the market is viable using the proposed spectrum micro-trading model, and that spectrum utilization can be greatly improved.