Mobile Proof-of-Sharing Architectures for Inter-Operator Spectrum Sharing Markets

An incentive-based spectrum sharing (IBSS) market requires truthfulness on sharing. In such a market where the government incentivizes cellular operators, a “Proof-of-Sharing (PoS)” module can be a new addition to maintain trust between cellular operators and the government. However, inter-operator spectrum sharing needs to resolve the complexity of a user’s movement and its effect on PoS reports within different cells (e.g., macro or small cells). A PoS module, that performs these resolutions, can be done at a central node receiving information from the participating operators or a cloud-based node where each user sends obtained service information. In this work, we argue that the placement of a shared mobility management entity (MME) along with the non-shared MME can minimize a user’s mobility issue and generates fewer PoS report messages. We focus on PoS reporting mode and propose three architectures for the PoS module: a) An MME sends information to PoS node, b) An evolved node base (eNodeB) uploads PoS reports, and c) User equipment generates PoS reports. We also make observations on pros and cons of these architectures by making a qualitative comparison.