Improving Spectrum Enforcement Through Enhanced Identification

Given the ever-increasing demand for wireless services and the pending explosion of Internet of Things (IoT), demand for radio spectrum will only become more acute. Setting aside (but not ignoring) the need for additional allocations of spectrum, this demand for wireless services will drive fierce regulatory battles. As deployments become denser, we will face increasing issues of harmful interference and a rising noise floor, compounding the already difficult task of enforcement for regulators. Furthermore, as devices become more densely deployed, it is likely that current methods for radio spectrum management will fall short, demanding novel radio access methods. Here, we propose that part of the solution for improving spectrum use is the adoption of better methods of identifying devices. Some radio communications traditionally made use of explicit methods for identification (ID) of participating entities, like call signs in amateur radios (eg. KE6PZH). However, identifiers have mostly been used for "name claim" to associate a device to its owner. Presently there exists many types of IDs in wireless networks, including IP addresses, Ethernet addresses, subscriber ids (in cellular networks) or catalog numbers (in satellite systems). Currently there are devices in the market that can co-exist in more than one services and might have more than one of these IDs. The FCC has long used call signs and other IDs to try to solve ex-post enforcement issues. With more heterogeneous devices assessing common frequency bands (due to advancement in technology and/or promotion of spectrum sharing) it may be necessary that we know more about the devices using these multiple IDs for enforcement purposes. Extending this argument, we intend to explore the possibility of using more granular device and/or service specific identifiers to ease the future of both ex-post and ex-ante enforcement. We will explore the need for going beyond the existing IDs and try to identify devices not only to find its owner, but also to unearth the mode of its operation (i.e., the different technical parameters associated with that device). By explicitly providing granular IDs in the physical layer we allow a common ground for these heterogeneous devices to perform ex-post enforcement either in a centralized or a distributed fashion, potentially leading to improving network access etiquettes. Similar benefits might be reaped by the homogeneous device operations, such as considering less conservative device level constraints to mitigate harmful interference. This novel method of identification comes with some open-ended challenges, including: where such IDs make sense and where they might not be necessary; what is the best method to communicate the IDs to other devices; and the benefits of extending traditional ID requirements, particularly to shared or lightly-licensed spectrum bands. This novel method of service/device/operation specific ID might be challenging to implement in terms of policy. However, it is a tradeoff for the opportunity cost incurred due to the traditional conservative enforcement approaches. Ultimately, this research is aimed at assisting the regulators in addressing future spectrum related enforcement and etiquette issues.