Rationale for the issue. In recent years, one of the most significant developments in wireless technology has been the m
TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY - SPECIAL ISSUE on COGNITIVE RADIO: REGULATION AND MARKETS
Rationale for the issue In recent years, one of the most significant developments in wireless technology has been the movement toward building Cognitive Radio (CR) systems. Cognitive Radio adds intelligence to radio components, enabling them to understand and adapt themselves to the environment they operate in. Recent regulatory decisions in the US and Europe have advanced the potential commercial deployment of CR systems to facilitate opportunistic secondary use of TV band spectrum, or so-called TV white space (TVWS), and are potentially considering much wider-ranging implementations. It is becoming increasingly clear that even the incremental application of CR technologies and the new spectrum access and business models that they entail, has the potential to cause a paradigm shift in the way spectrum is managed, utilised and monetised. For policy makers and regulators, this poses a range of challenges, as well as providing opportunities to reduce scarcity, increase competitiveness, and so on. The aim of this issue is to gather a range of international, multidisciplinary insights into the major challenges and implications for Telecommunications Policy and Regulation vis-à-vis Cognitive Radio Markets and Technologies. The first set of issues concerns the context of CR systems, i.e. the rationale, challenges and solutions related to cooperative and non-cooperative spectrum sharing. For several years, scarcity in radio spectrum has been one of the main preoccupations of telecoms industry and regulators worldwide. The ever increasing proliferation of technologies making use of wireless communications and the amount of applications relying on such wireless access, have rendered spectrum a costly resource. In most regions of the world, communications regulators are moving towards more flexible ways of allocating spectrum (such as through spectrum trading, pooling and unlicensed frequencies), but this has not solved the scarcity problem. The recent Broadband Plan of the FCC, which aims to make an additional 500 MHz of spectrum available for wireless broadband, and the EU’s first Radio Spectrum Policy Programme, show that more advanced measures will be needed to confront the high demand for Radio Spectrum, and that the consideration of such measures is high on the regulatory agenda. The second set of issues refers to Cognitive Radio and its progress and implications for policy and regulation. CR allows devices and base stations to detect vacant parts of the spectrum and temporarily use these frequencies, allowing various radio technologies to co-exist in the same frequency bands and thus leading to a much higher spectrum efficiency. Originally coming out of the military domain, applications for CR in various frequency bands are now intensively being researched, developed and implemented. It appears to be clear that these CR applications have the potential to provide a significant breakthrough in flexible, more efficient spectrum and increased competition in wireless communications markets. But it is totally unclear how they are currently being planned, standardised and implemented by industry players, how they are impacting market structures and incentives for
innovation, and how policy and regulatory frameworks are being adapted or need to be adapted in order for CR to yield optimal results. The third set of issues deals with the specific use of CR in various markets and under various regulatory circumstances. The most prominent example of this is the issue of allowing opportunistic devices to operate in the so-called TV White Spaces (TVWS). Considering TVWS as a test case for the technological, regulatory and economical feasibility of Cognitive Radio, regulators in many countries (as well as within institutions such as ITU, CEPT and standardization bodies such as ETSI and IEEE) are currently determining the technical and legal parameters for such TVWS use. The different options considered and/or implemented entail strongly divergent business and policy implications. Again, this remains mostly uncharted academic territory up to this day. Structure of the issue It is in this context that this special issue on “Cognitive Radio: Regulation and Markets” calls for contributions. Contributions need to address the particular relevance and issues related to CR for policy makers, regulators, the telecommunications industry and other relevant stakeholders. Contributions may address
The meaning of CR within the overall development of flexible spectrum regulation, standardisation and/or industry strategies and roadmaps.
The frameworks that regulators have created and are in the process of creating to allow the use of CR devices.
Comparative analysis of alternative secondary use management regimes related to CR
The regulatory feasibility and/or economic viability of CR technologies, enablers and alternatives, within the context of TV White Spaces or other domains, taking into account the positions within the telecoms industry, the IT, the broadcasting sectors and so on.
Implications of CR and flexible spectrum regulation on market structures, incentives for innovation, consumer access, or other policy concerns.
Other relevant topics in the context of this special issue’s theme.
Additional details Contributions will be full-length papers (4000-6000 words). The special issue is convened in collaboration with the Cost Action IC0905 Terra, funded by the European Science Foundation. Articles should conform to the journal’s notes for authors and will follow the double blind review procedure of the journal. Submissions should be uploaded through the journal on-line portal: http://ees.elsevier.com/jtpo/
Guest editorial team Pieter Ballon, IBBT-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel William Lehr, CSAIL, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Simon Delaere, IBBT-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Important tentative dates Submission deadline: August 30, 2011
