Game theoretic analysis of sublicensing for PAL and GAA bands in spectrum access system

Abstract

Motivated by recent efforts in enabling economic models for spectrum sharing systems, in particular, for the Spectrum Access System in the US, we propose a game theoretic analysis of sublicensing between two types of access methods in such system — PAL and GAA. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how the operators' strategies affect their own payoffs and the overall utility in the Sublicenseing Game in a spectrum sharing system. We consider the problem of spectrum sharing among multiple operators who have to pay for a temporary PAL sublicense with the exclusive right to the PAL band or stay in the GAA band and share the spectrum for free with other GAA users. We first formulate this scenario as a noncooperative game, and then study the existence of a Nash equilibrium. Finally, to reduce the overall utility loss we let the spectrum sharing platform to coordinate individual operators by forming pair coalitions for them. According to our findings, when an operator has a large number of subscribers GAA band is the best response and a high PAL sublicense price holds back operators to access the PAL band. Additionally, making equal coalitions among operators can avoid overall utility loss.