A price based dynamic spectrum allocation scheme

We develop a system model where multiple service providers (SPs), in the same geographic region, share a fixed spectrum, on a non-interference basis. This spectrum is allocated to end-users for transmission to the SPs. We assume that a user can obtain service from all the SPs. The quality of service depends on system parameters such as number of users and SPs, the channel conditions between the users and SPs and the total transmit power of each user. We adopt a user utility maximization framework to analyze this system. We introduce a spectrum price that enables a simple distributed spectrum allocation with minimal coordination among the SPs and users. Given the user utility functions and the system parameters, we characterize the spectrum price and the optimal bandwidth that the users should obtain.