Toronto Networking Seminar

Organized by Department of Computer Science and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto


 

Economics of Radio Spectrum Provision for Secondary Use

 

 

Ashraf Al Daoud

University of Waterloo

 

 

Date: January 7, 3pm

Room: BA B024 (Bahen Center Basement)


Abstract:

A distinctive feature of radio spectrum is the possibility of serving users of different requirements from a certain wireless system. In this respect, service providers can tem- porarily offer the surplus of their allocated spectrum bands to users of opportunistic nature. From the standpoint of a spectrum regulator, spectrum provision for secondary users can lead to improvement in spectrum utilization. From the standpoint of a service provider, it can lead to revenue improvement due to the expected increase in subscriber pools. In this work, we study revenue management from such provision by modeling a wireless system as a multiclass loss network and devise techniques for spectrum sharing that can be practically implemented and computationally efficient. We also consider techniques that involve pricing in light of lack of knowledge of price-demand relationships. In this respect, we characterize a critical price above which a pro- vision of spectrum is profitable and with this we give explicit characterization of profitable spectrum sharing policies. Joint work with Murat Alanyali and David Starobinski from Boston University.

Bio:

Ashraf Al Daoud is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Canada. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering from Boston University in 2010. In summer 2007, he was a visiting researcher with the networking group at Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, Berlin. His research inter- ests include economics for communication networks and resource allocation in wired and wireless networks. Ashraf Al Daoud is a recipient of Fulbright Award in 2003 and Boston University Deans Research Fellowship in 2005. He is also the recipient of best paper award at WiOpt conference 2010.

Host of Talk:

Jorg Liebeherr (jorg@comm.utoronto.ca)