Spectrum sharing – fast-track capacity with Licensed Shared Access

Spectrum is fundamental to the success of mobile wireless communications. In recent years, it has been difficult to add new spectrum due to incumbent or legacy use. Shared spectrum opens opportunities to unlock additional, currently underutilized, spectrum for mobile broadband, in situations when incumbent or co-primary use does not diminish the value of that spectrum to the mobile operator. This is important because clearing this underused spectrum for exclusive use by the mobile industry would not be possible within reasonable time frames.

This paper illustrates how the associated risks of spectrum sharing may be mitigated, and what prerequisites are necessary for spectrum to be shared effectively from both a technical and commercial point of view. Certain new developments in particular, such as the Authorized/Licensed Shared Access (ASA/LSA) approach, show great promise in making spectrum sharing attractive for mobile operators.

To date, dedicated, licensed spectrum for mobile broadband has been very successful in terms of societal benefits and spectrum use efficiency, and, looking forward, it should remain the main future spectrum management track for the mobile networks. For certain capacity-related parts of a future multi-RAT multi-band network infrastructure, however, it will have to be complemented by ASA/LSA in regards to mobile spectrum that cannot be released for use by the mobile industry in reasonable time.

ASA/LSA caters to controlled, coordinated binary use by either the operator or the incumbent; it provides predictability for investment security and QoS; and it protects the incumbent. Geo-location databases and appropriate policy control mechanisms are important technical enablers, and it is best suited for those parts of a mobile operator’s infrastructure that operate in higher frequency ranges.

Spectrum sharing – fast-track capacity with Licensed Shared Access