A Semantic Framework for Enabling Radio Spectrum Policy Management and Evaluation

TL;DR

This paper presents a semantic, machine-readable framework for managing and evaluating radio spectrum policies, enhancing automation and decision-making for spectrum sharing among federal and commercial users.

Contribution

It introduces a novel semantic policy representation and reasoning system that supports automated spectrum access request evaluation and policy explanation.

Findings

Framework supports live spectrum management exercises

Utilizes OWL, PROV-O, and GeoSPARQL for policy reasoning

Enhances spectrum policy automation and transparency

Abstract

Because radio spectrum is a finite resource, its usage and sharing is regulated by government agencies. These agencies define policies to manage spectrum allocation and assignment across multiple organizations, systems, and devices. With more portions of the radio spectrum being licensed for commercial use, the importance of providing an increased level of automation when evaluating such policies becomes crucial for the efficiency and efficacy of spectrum management. We introduce our Dynamic Spectrum Access Policy Framework for supporting the United States government's mission to enable both federal and non-federal entities to compatibly utilize available spectrum. The DSA Policy Framework acts as a machine-readable policy repository providing policy management features and spectrum access request evaluation. The framework utilizes a novel policy representation using OWL and PROV-O along with a domain-specific reasoning implementation that mixes GeoSPARQL, OWL reasoning, and knowledge graph traversal to evaluate incoming spectrum access requests and explain how applicable policies were used. The framework is currently being used to support live, over-the-air field exercises involving a diverse set of federal and commercial radios, as a component of a prototype spectrum management system.