Dynamic Spectrum Management for 5G

The articles in this special section focus on dynamic spectrum management for fifth generation (5G) communications which is expected to continue strong growth in the near future. In the last decade global mobile data traffic has approximately doubled each year, growth that is projected to continue unabated, due mainly to the introduction of new services and features specified by standards bodies. Thus, the wireless industry is asked to fulfill an increase in mobile data demand by a factor of 1000, which is one of the most challenging requirements that the 5G system design has to address. There are various opportunities to enhance the network capacity, for example, by exploiting advanced receiver techniques, novel cooperative multipoint transmissions schemes, innovative multi-antenna solutions, and finally, an effective and broad deployment of heterogeneous networks. Unfortunately, these foreseen technical innovations on small cells and macrocells seem insufficient to reach the 1000 target. One of the key enablers that can allow supporting the required data traffic is to exploit additional bands, and to guarantee access to as much licensed and unlicensed spectrum as possible. Therefore, the wireless research community has to focus much more on enhanced, more effective, and also completely new spectrum management techniques.