Novel Licensing Schemes

Regulation is often a key challenge that must be overcome in realizing opportunistic spectrum sharing and white spaces access. The associated nature of spectrum licenses issued to spectrum owners can often constrain the possibility of sharing spectrum in an opportunistic manner, especially if there is no agreement from the "owner" of the spectrum that is being opportunistically used or shared. This chapter investigates approaches that are being taken to facilitate opportunistic spectrum sharing and white spaces access through enhancing the nature of the licenses that are issued to spectrum users. Moreover, it presents the proposed novel licensing scheme Pluralistic Licensing and argues/demonstrates its beneficial nature particularly from a financial point of view.