Market mechanisms for cooperative spectrum trading with incomplete network information

Wireless spectrum is very valuable but currently heavily under-utilized. Cooperative spectrum trading encourages primary licensed users and secondary unlicensed users to exchange money or resources to achieve a win-win situation, and can significantly increase the utilization of wireless spectrum. In this article, we discuss various market mechanisms that facilitate cooperative spectrum trading with incomplete network information. We introduce mechanisms including pricing, bargaining, contract, and auction, and demonstrate the applicability using a concrete example of resource-exchange cooperative spectrum trading. We also outline various open issues in this emerging interdisciplinary research area.