This paper offers a review of technical policy options that should enable the possibility of shared use of the frequency band 6425-7125 MHz by 5G/6G IMT systems as primary user and secondary RLAN applications such as Wi-Fi. The analysis focuses on a European case study and is made by reviewing the numerous technical spectrum co-existence studies considered in CEPT against a set of critical research questions. The findings are then compared with the body of technical evidence available in scientific literature. Based on such critical comparative analysis, we propose a consolidated set of ultimate technical policy options that could be made part of the regulatory framework to enable shared use of the upper 6 GHz band by IMT and RLAN applications.

This paper builds on the proposed evolved Spectrum Usage Rights (eSUR) framework to examine the potential for market mechanisms to reduce friction in shared access and use of the Upper 6 GHz (U6) band as well as establishing monetary assessment of a socio-economic value to be derived from such spectrum use arrangement. An eSUR license would be defined with conditions for interference control based on average received power level, much longer license duration, packaged to minimum viable sizes, and unrestricted options for trading. The proposition of shared use of the U6 band under a market approach for interference control is therefore the central point of this paper. A two-attribute auction design, with two initial MNO participation variants, is proposed in which an MNO’s bid for one band’s block consists of a price and a level of interference. Two VCG-based pricing rules are also proposed. If the regulator allows participation by the Wi-Fi networks community, an alternative concept of auction design is also proposed in which Wi-Fi community becomes a new, single bidder who bids collectively. Such a scenario is explored with two proposed auction configurations.

The field of wireless communications has traditionally been defined by what seems like unending exponential traffic growth. History suggests this trend is unlikely to continue in perpetuity, at least with the current set of applications, with recent evidence pointing to moderating traffic growth. In this article, we evaluate the implications of the peak smartphone era for those designing wireless networks within the context of the next-generation of wireless broadband technologies. First, three potential future demand scenarios are identified, ranging from a return to exponential traffic growth (optimistic) to continued moderation in growth (realistic) and even a scenario of declining traffic (pessimistic). Second, we compare the emerging properties of the 6th generation of cellular technology ("6G") envisioned by IMT2030 and two new Wi-Fi standards, including IEEE 802.11be ("Wi-Fi 7") and IEEE 802.11bn ("Wi-Fi 8"). Finally, an alternative vision for the future of wireless broadband is proposed, focusing on enhanced coverage, reduced deployment costs, and improved energy efficiency. Four key recommendations include use of neutral hosts for superior indoor coverage, ensuring spectrum sharing and intelligent handover/roaming integration between cellular, Wi-Fi, and Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs), providing strong support for infrastructure sharing and national roaming in rural and remote areas, and efficient (re)organizing of existing spectrum allocations.

Could maximum data speeds–on mobile devices, at home, at work–be approaching “fast enough” for most people for most purposes? These heretical questions are worth asking, because industry bandwidth tracking data has lately been revealing something surprising: Terrestrial and mobile-data growth is slowing down. In fact, absent a dramatic change in consumer tech and broadband usage patterns, data-rate demand appears set to top out below 1 billion bits per second (1 gigabit per second) in just a few years.

This article discusses the key principles of radio spectrum management with a focus on spectrum allocation and access. We show the current regime's inherent rigidity and constrained possibilities for introducing new radiocommunication services and applications. The article proposes how governments and spectrum users could cooperate in taking spectrum management to a qualitatively new level, characterized by light touch regulation and flexible use. This could be achieved through the broader introduction of emerging practices such as Spectrum Usage Rights, liberalized spectrum trading, and full shared spectrum access. We conclude by presenting a vision for a 'perfect' spectrum management arrangement and future research directions.

Radio spectrum is critically important to the functioning of modern society but is a scarce resource in great demand. Ideally, it should be allocated to the most valuable uses in a country and used as intensively as possible. Yet, we are far from this, with spectrum use entrenched for decades and much of spectrum unused for much of the time. Changing usage is typically bureaucratic and glacially slow compared to the speed of innovation. That is, the promise of spectrum management reforms has not been delivered so far. We promulgate and endorse the earlier views that the key elements needed to progress with spectrum liberalisation are fully flexible spectrum property rights where the use can be changed by the licence holder subject to interference constraints, improved conditions for secondary trading to enable change of ownership, and the lightest touch regulatory intervention. We propose and explain a comprehensive policy framework based on the concept of Evolved Spectrum Usage Rights (eSUR) that enables change of use and innovation that can apply to all exclusive spectrum licensing. We elaborate on this to discuss a practical path and roadmap to the future to realise a world where spectrum can deliver much greater value than currently. The proposed policy measures apply predominantly to commercial spectrum, but some elements might also help with public sector spectrum.

This paper looks at the evolution of the Licensed Shared Access (LSA) – a pioneering European scheme for tapping into radio spectrum that remains assigned to incumbent users. Using the theoretical framework of Co-evolutionary Development, we build analytical case study to understand why this crucial innovation did not take hold in the European wireless market, despite a decade of regulatory and standardisation efforts. Drawing on literature analysis and expert knowledge, we identify barriers that contributed to the stalling of LSA deployment and co-evolutionary forces that could help alleviating them. We expose the need for more proactive engagement of European regional policymakers and suggest directions for refocusing future LSA regulatory activities to target an expanded set of frequency bands, as well as broadening their scope to include local non-public networks and industry verticals.

This paper argues that the process adopted to design 5G was not fully successful, with few of the design goals being met, and with more limited deployment and lower consumer enthusiasm than previous generations. This was because of undue influence from manufacturers and politicians and insufficient input from mobile operators and users. Hence, it is appropriate to question whether a different approach should be adopted to deliver 6G. The question is timely; within a year or two the approach towards 6G and its key targets will become increasingly hard to change.

Radio spectrum is a valuable resource requiring careful management in the national interest. In 2011, the last time the assessment was carried out, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport/DCMS, the department with responsibility for spectrum policy, estimated that spectrum contributed £52 billion to the U.K. economy and that this had increased in real terms by 25 percent over the previous five years.

The Covid-19 virus is impacting all aspects of our lives. It is most prevalent in cities and is viewed as a threat to a city's well-being. In fact, it presents a crisis and national emergency. A question arising is how it may impact and shape smart city technologies? In this editorial, we will set out our thinking as to how technology and research might need to change in the light of the virus. (a) Enforcing lockdown (b) Social distancing, and (c) Ensuring basic supplies of food and medicines. Cities have long had substantial surveillance of people using CCTV cameras. Covid-19 may encourage a whole new level of people monitoring. Some governments are using mobile phones to track individuals, to predict whether they are likely to be free of the virus and to monitor who they may have come in contact with recently. Some are using phones to enforce self-isolation. Such surveillance raises many potential civil-liberty issues, but we shall not discuss these here. Better optimise transport based on demand Reduce crime through identification of anyone via CCTV who does not appear to be carrying a mobile phone. Correlate future health issues with various factors such as movement, temperature, personal health records and more. Better understanding of people movement during unusual situations such as major sports events, protests, street carnivals, etc. Cities may have to impose restrictions on who enters and leaves a city. Because most cities do not have borders but do have thousands of roads, railways, waterways and other passages in and out this can be near-impossible, but surveillance can quickly identify what appears to be transgressions. Track patient numbers, predict where hospitals will reach capacity, and balance loads across other hospitals in the city where possible. Track key logistical items such as protective clothing, masks, gloves, medicines and intensive care equipment. Track key medical personnel across the city and ensure that they have higher priority in the access to food, transportation and other necessary items. Better screening techniques to prioritize the severity of patients during admissions Monitor buying behaviour and rapidly limit purchases when unusual patterns were detected. Optimise supply chains, for example prioritising access for delivery lorries to bring goods that are in short supply. Coupled with surveillance, name-and-shame or otherwise prosecute individuals engaged in anti-social activities including hoarding. Restrictions on the levels of crowding on public transport such as metro trains and buses, which might place increased pressure to run more trains and buses or enable other forms of mobility such as cycling. Fewer office workers, as the attraction of being in the city is reduced, and as many become familiar with home-working technologies and adapt their work to suit. Increased sanitation, requiring monitoring that it has been accomplished. Monitoring of people for high temperatures or other indicators that they might be unwell. The level of authoritarianism of the government – more authoritarian ones will likely engage more in personal surveillance, whereas less authoritarian ones may shy away from being seen to intrude into the lives of individuals. The level of commuting into the city – in cities like Hong Kong many of the workers live in the city, whereas in cities like London most commute in from outside. What to shut down, isolate and what not to. The pandemic has not reduced the need for smart cities, but rather it has greatly enhanced and justified its existence and the need to be smart. It has also changed some dimensions associated with smart health, logistics, people surveillance, data security and crisis management. We anticipate a shift in focus over the coming months and years, as new challenges arise and new solutions proposed to address them. We aim to use this Journal to rapidly reflect the best thinking on how smart cities need to adapt and evolve, so as to improve the lives of billions under various possible threats.

The hypothesis is put forward that, after three decades of stability, there is now the prospect of significant change in the vertical and horizontal structure of the mobile market place. On the supply side, significant factors are, first, the availability of a new and very powerful form of mobile connectivity in the shape of 5G, and second, software defined networking, which allows a single network to provide a variety of heterogeneous services or 'slices'. On the demand side, the digital transformation of the whole economy (and not just the communications sector) creates the need for diverse communications functions operating in a universe with a much wider set of digitally transformed services. Mobile operators will find themselves contesting customer relationship with firms or other organisations providing these services in an integrated fashion, and thus risk replacing their direct link with end users with becoming the wholesale supplier of an expanded but 'commoditised' communications product. We may also observe fewer radio access networks; more competitive backhaul; and the (partial) vertical disintegration of mobile network operators. The regulatory changes implied may include heavier regulation of fewer RANs, and the need for market analyses to confront situations in which network operators sell more and more of their services to a variety of heterogeneous content and application providers - some of them exercising substantial levels of market power.

The appearance and spread of COVID-19 have accentuated the connectivity and digitization lag in Latin American and Caribbean countries. The lockdowns imposed to reduce the spread of the virus increased the demand for digital tools that would allow economic, educational, and social activities to continue remotely. Despite the significant increase in the coverage of broadband networks in the region, there are still few activities that can be carried out remotely. This may be due to a lack of connectivity for a significant number of people, or to the difficulty for various actors in accelerating their digital transformation. This paper intends to assist policymakers in determining what measure might best assist countries given their circumstances.

Purpose - Small cells, or microcells, are often seen as a way to substantially enhance the capacity of cellular networks. Previous assumptions have been that by deploying a dense layer of small cells within a macrocell, capacity can be improved by an order of magnitude or more. However, there are complexities such as the need to share frequencies between macrocell and small cells, varying patterns of users, the balance between indoor and outdoor subscribers and the different options available within 4G for balancing loading. The purpose of this study is to understand the impact these real-world constraints have on the capacity enhancements that small cells can provide. Design/methodology/approach - This paper describes a model that simulates the impact of small cell deployments in macrocells in a typical 4G network. Findings - It shows that, in some cases, small cells can actually reduce capacity, while in the best case, maximum capacity gains are less than 100 per cent. Originality/value - It shows that, in some cases, small cells can actually reduce capacity contrary to perceived wisdom.

THERE'S A SAYING that generals are always preparing to fight the previous war. They’ve learnt successful strategies from prior experience and are inclined to use them in the next battle. Learning from experience is critically important, but previous strategies can be inappropriate when other factors change. It might be that the mobile community is fighting a 5G war with lessons learnt from previou...

Machine communications require low-cost, ubiquitous coverage, 10-year battery life, and global harmonization. No existing wireless technologies or networks deliver all of these. Designing a new wireless technology was until recently hampered by the availability of suitable radio spectrum that was low cost, low frequency, plentiful, and globally harmonized. The advent of TV white space has provided an opportunity to realize a custom-designed machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless technology that delivers against all of the requirements. Such a technology can take into account the specific needs of machines such as the mostly scheduled transmission of very small packets of information and the specific needs of white space such as avoiding interference from licensed and unlicensed users. This chapter discussed these needs and shows how the Weightless technology has been custom-designed to meet them. It then covers the standardization of the technology within a newly established standards body.