Spectrum sharing with value‐orientation for cognitive radio

Radio spectrum is not efficiently utilised because of the complicated and time‐consuming radio regulation processes. In this article, technologies to help overcoming this barrier, namely, cognitive radios, are discussed. Cognitive radios (i.e. agile radios) operate in the radio spectrum that was originally licensed to other (incumbent, primary) radio services. A cognitive radio seeks unused radio resources and communicates using these opportunities, without interfering with the operation of licensed radios. We discuss two main problems: protection of incumbents and coexistence of cognitive radios. Spectrum sharing among different radio systems can be understood as a scenario forming a society of independent decision‐makers. Therefore, basic concepts to classify social action that are taken from social science are applied to define system strategy rules. The rules represent algorithms for decision‐making entities (referred to as actors) that reside in the radio systems. For a simple scenario of spectrum sharing, we investigate the need for regulation as opposed to voluntary rules.