Monday, March 6, 2017

Economics of Database-Assisted Spectrum Sharing

March 6, 2017, 8:30am-12:00pm (Noon)

Organizers: Jianwei Huang, Lin Gao, Yuan Luo, (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China)

Database-assisted spectrum sharing network is a promising paradigm of dynamic spectrum sharing, and can effectively improve the spectrum utilization and alleviate the spectrum scarcity, via the centralized control of databases residing in the cloud. In this tutorial, we discuss the business modeling for database-assisted spectrum sharing network, which is very important for the wide commercialization of this promising technology. Motivated by several recent business practices, we will discuss two types of different business models: spectrum market and information market. In the spectrum market model, spectrum licensees, through spectrum brokers acted by databases, lease the under-utilized (licensed) spectrum to unlicensed wireless devices for secondary utilization. In the information market model, databases sell the advanced information regarding (unlicensed) spectrum to unlicensed wireless devices in order to enhance the secondary spectrum utilization performance. We will discuss the trading mechanism for both market models, and evaluate the feasibility and performance of both models through theoretical and numerical studies. This tutorial is partially based on the book "Economics of Database-Assisted Spectrum Sharing" co-authored by the tutorial speakers (http://www.springer.com/la/book/9783319432304).

Spectrum Access Systems

March 6, 2017, 8:30am-12:00pm (Noon)

Organizer: Andrew Clegg (Google)

The first implementation of large-scale multi-tiered dynamic spectrum sharing is getting under way in the U.S. The FCC has authorized access to the 3550-3700 MHz band under the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), where incumbents will share spectrum with underlay services whose spectrum authorizations will be managed by a Spectrum Access System (SAS). This is the first example of SAS-managed spectrum sharing, and expanding the SAS concept to other bands has already been proposed. The purpose of this session is to cover:

1. The policy origin of multi-tiered SAS-managed spectrum sharing;
2. An overview of the SAS rules and implementation details in the CBRS band
3. The regulator’s view of SAS certification and evolution
4. SAS-managed sharing opportunities outside the U.S.
5. Challenges of shared spectrum access under SAS control

We anticipate that the tutorial will be comprised of individual talks, and a panel discussion.

View more information about the Spectrum Access Systems Tutorial >>

Impact of RF Front End Nonlinearity on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks

March 6, 2017, 1:30pm-5:30pm

Organizers: Jeffrey H. Reed, Aditya V. Padaki and Vuk Marojevic, (Virginia Tech, USA)

Radio frequency (RF) front ends are nonlinear systems that have nonlinear frequency response that can impair receiver performance by harmful adjacent channel interference in non-intuitive ways. In dynamic spectrum access scenarios, where heterogeneous transceivers access portions of shared spectrum, communications performance can be compromised because of poor RF selectivity. This tutorial addresses the technological challenges in receiver-centric wireless network design and develops an analytical framework for quantifying the implications of RF front end nonlinearity on network performance, utilization, and fairness. This tutorial will further provide deep technical insights into nonlinear adjacent channel interference management avoidance, and cancellation for next generation dynamic spectrum access networks.

The tutorial is organized in three parts. The first part introduces the fundamental analytical framework for characterizing and quantifying the impact of RF front end nonlinearity on dynamic spectrum access system performance. We present model specific spectral characterization to describe the phenomena of third order intermodulation, cross-modulation and desensitization of the receiver front-end nonlinear distortion, necessary for adjacent channel co-existence analysis. The second part presents a comprehensive wireless network management framework and strategies that account for the RF imperfections and diversity of heterogeneous wireless devices. The third part establishes the fundamentals of nonlinear interference between symbols of adjacent channels and addresses the scalability and network level mechanisms for nonlinear adjacent channel interference avoidance.

Example practical applications of the topics covered in this tutorial are in the design of spectrum access schemes for the 3.5 GHz band and the recent efforts to open AWS-3 band for sharing in the US, but the same principles apply to any spectrum sharing band. Overall, this tutorial introduces the fundamentals of receiver-centric analysis, frameworks and algorithms critical to the design, development, testing and successful deployment of next generation dynamic spectrum access networks.

Open Source Signal Processing in the GNU Radio Ecosystem

March 6, 2017, 1:30pm-5:30pm

Organizers: Nathan West (Oklahoma State University, Naval Research Laboratory) and Tim O’Shea (Virginia Tech, DEEPSIG Inc)

This tutorial will provide a brief introduction to GNU Radio and the ecosystem surrounding it, demonstrate basic spectrum sensing and packet communications with gnuradio, and introduce a number of the key tools and resources from the open source software radio community. We will advance through the tutorial from basics of getting up and running in GNU Radio for performing spectrum sensing and packet communications, through how to build and implement custom blocks and out-of-tree modules, to how to accelerate them, survey a number of modems and tools available from the community, and then explore some of the emerging trends in heterogeneous processing with dataflow graph compilers such as Tensorflow and explore their use in signal processing as well as machine learning tasks in conjunction with GNU Radio.

Wireless Prototyping and Implementation with USRP and Other Software-defined Radios using MATLAB and Simulink

March 6, 2017, 1:30pm-5:30pm

Organizer: Rob Graessle (MathWorks)

Engineers working on wireless systems face many technical challenges, including capturing wireless signals, making custom measurements, and performing filtering, correlation and demodulation on captured data. MATLAB provides a flexible programming environment for digital signal processing and analysis, and engineers can now connect MATLAB directly to radio hardware like the USRP radios from Ettus Research. This capability allows wireless engineers to locate signals and quickly test design ideas in MATLAB with live RF sources.

This tutorial will demonstrate several core functions of the MATLAB suite which support prototyping and implementation including: MATLAB functions and Simulink blocks to connect to RTL-SDR, USRP and Zynq radios; transmitting and receiving live RF signals; fixed-point receiver design; hardware/software co-design for Zynq based radios; generating HDL code for receiver algorithms and deploying them onto FPGA and Zynq based radios; and examples of ADS-B and LTE.