Project objectives

The specific objectives of the QUASAR-project are:

Objective 1: Investigating the impact of opportunistic spectrum access on primary system performance, especially as a function of primary system receiver requirements. This work is done by taking into account not only in-channel, but also adjacent channel and EMI problems. The work will consider both short-term impact on existing equipment and long-term possibilities to improve resilience of primary systems.

Objective 2: Moving the community from “detecting spectrum holes” to the regime of “discovering ‘real‘ spectrum opportunities”. A novel approach employed by the project is go beyond relying simple signal processing and detection, and treat the spectrum discover as a data fusion problem. Thus we consider the modeling and decision problem in the context, where information is collected from multiple different sources that include spectrum detection, databases, location context etc. The measurable goal and achievement of this objective is to provide full data fusion model and spectrum discovery framework for the community. This is achieved by providing methodologies and an assessment tools.

Objective 3: Developing detailed methods to assess the impact of multiple secondary users. Almost all research so far has focused on a single device employing spectrum overly techniques. However, the provision of commercial services based on this technology, such as broadband wireless access, will inevitably involve situations, where there are multiple competing or cooperating secondary users, which might use heterogeneous access technologies. The QUASAR will provide quantitative analysis on the impact of such situations on primary users. The work is closely related to the general theme and objective 2 on the opportunity discovery under different operating conditions. In addition to impacts towards primary users, we will provide also enhanced understanding on secondary user performance degradation as a function of the number of secondary users, thus providing a quantitative understanding of the achievable service levels using secondary access.

Objective 4: Multi-Parameter and Utility based assessment of value of spectrum (opportunities). The project is developing a unique and novel methodology to model the value of spectrum, and to measure efficiency of the systems, based on utilities. Thus we go beyond the simplistic capacity and bit/s/Hz assessments by providing a more holistic and balanced viewpoint and methodology that take into account multitude of different parameters, such as coverage, “user perceived quality”, operational costs, etc.

Objective 5: QUASAR provides detailed roadmaps and guidelines on how to apply and analyze new opportunistic spectrum access business models. The comprehensive analysis of techno-economical environment from multiple viewpoints is used to develop clear, understandable and applicable what-if scenarios and models, which can be used by management and decision managers within different stakeholder organizations to make reasoned decisions on exploitation.

Objective 6: Providing specific and reasoned proposals to go beyond the current regulatory framework and by covering the whole value-chain inspiring a meaningful interaction between all stakeholders and regulators. As recently stated also in the 1st CEPT/ERO meeting on cognitive radio in Mainz, there remains too many uncertainties including undefined terminology, models and value propositions. The QUASAR project is aimed to solve this problem. By developing clear and quantifiable methods and tools through Objectives 1-4, we will be able to clarify concepts and aims. By having carefully selected members in the consortium, and most notably the leading and progressive regulators from European member countries, we will be able to kick-start meaningful debate and interaction with regulators.