[Use Case] MITRE-! Spectrum Policy Deployment

 
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** MITRE-1   Spectrum Policy Deployment  In The World of Cognitive
Radios
 
-- Background information
 
This use case is based on an extrapolation from 1) the way spectrum use
is currently regulated and 2) a plausible model of how things might
evolve to accommodate the eventual deployment of "cognitive radios."
Such a device is permitted some degree of autonomous operation and
dynamic  reconfiguration.
 
Currently, under the ITU-Radio treaty every country retains a sovereign
right to regulate spectrum allocation and access within its own
territory.  That is not likely to change.  So, in the future, as
spectrum policies are made machine-readable (using ontologies and
rules) every country will promulgate its policies within its territory
using whatever formal language it wants.  Perhaps the world will agree
on a single standard representation formalism for writing these
policies, perhaps not.   
 
However, it will be the responsibility of manufacturers of cognitive
radio equipment (cell phones, wireless access points, etc.) to make
sure that their devices are compliant with the policies of whatever
regions in which they expect them to operate.  It may be that a given
manufacturer finds it efficient to use a certain kind of knowledge
representation language inside its devices in order to govern the
behavior of the device.  It is not likely that the manufacturer would
want to support additional  representation formats (with associated
inference engines) in order to be able to allow the device to reason
about multiple regional policies. 
 
It seems clear that "semantic web technology" should make it possible
for a cognitive radio to operate in a compliant manner across national
boundaries (and other policy boundaries).  Life would be easier if
everyone agreed to write all their policies and device-knowledge in the
same representation language.  But that is probably unrealistic. 
 
 
-- First Use Case: Policy Downloading using a Global Spectrum Policy
Server
 
Suppose a user of a spectrum utilizing device moves from one policy
region to another.   As the user enters the new region, the device is
signaled that it needs to download a regional policy in order to
operate legally.  This policy is written in a formalism that the device
cannot understand.  In this case a server could provide a service to
the device.  (This is a server that might be maintained by a consortium
of interested manufacturers.)  For any device model that is known to
the server, the server is able to translate (or at least provide an
authorized translation) of any policy written in any format in a form
that the given device can understand.  Note that the translation of the
policy need not be logically equivalent to the original or even a
complete translation.  The main requirement is that the translation
does not allow the device to be used illegally. 
 
-- Variant on first Use Case: Policy Checking on Demand
 
Another way in which this kind of regional policy issue could be
addressed, is to make sure that before a device attempts to initiate
any kind of spectrum utilizing activity in a region, it checks with a
server to make sure its contemplated use of spectrum is legal.  In that
case the device does not need to download a policy itself,  rather the
server would have an understanding of the device. In the world of
cognitive radio, a device's behavior may be related to a set of rules
that govern its function,  and these rules may be written in a
representation format of the manufacturers choice.  Therefore, in order
for the policy check to work, the server needs to be able to relate the
device representation language  to the policy representation language.

 
-- In both cases there is a need to relate the implications of a set of
rules written in one language to the implications of a set of rules
written in a different language.  
 
 

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Dr. Allen Ginsberg   The MITRE Corporation, Information Semantics 
aginsberg@mitre.org       Center for Innovative Computing & Informatics

Voice: 703-983-1604       7515 Colshire Drive, M/S H305 
Fax:   703-983-1379       McLean, VA 22102-7508, USA