Operations Research Enables Auction to Repurpose Television Spectrum for Next-Generation Wireless Technologies

Jean L. Kiddoo (), Evan Kwerel (), Sasha Javid (), Melissa Dunford (), Gary M. Epstein (), Charles E. Meisch,Jr. (), Karla L. Hoffman (), Brian B. Smith (), Anthony B. Coudert (), Rudy K. Sultana (), James A. Costa (), Steven Charbonneau (), Michael Trick (), Ilya Segal (), Kevin Leyton-Brown (), Neil Newman (), Alexandre Fréchette (), Dinesh Menon () and Paul Salasznyk ()
Additional contact information
Jean L. Kiddoo: Federal Communications Commission, Washington, District of Columbia 20554
Evan Kwerel: Federal Communications Commission, Washington, District of Columbia 20554
Sasha Javid: Hogan Lovells US LLP, Washington, District of Columbia 20004
Melissa Dunford: Federal Communications Commission, Washington, District of Columbia 20554
Gary M. Epstein: Federal Communications Commission, Washington, District of Columbia 20554
Charles E. Meisch,Jr.: SKDKnickerbocker, Washington, District of Columbia 20036
Karla L. Hoffman: George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030
Brian B. Smith: NCI Information Systems, Inc., Reston, Virginia 20190
Anthony B. Coudert: NCI Information Systems, Inc., Reston, Virginia 20190
Rudy K. Sultana: NCI Information Systems, Inc., Reston, Virginia 20190
James A. Costa: Grubhub, Chicago, Illinois 60602
Steven Charbonneau: Incentive Technology Group, Arlington, Virginia 22202
Michael Trick: Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar, Doha, Qatar
Ilya Segal: Auctionomics Inc, Palo Alto, California 94301; Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
Kevin Leyton-Brown: Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
Neil Newman: Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
Alexandre Fréchette: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
Dinesh Menon: Marriott International, Bethesda, Maryland 20817
Paul Salasznyk: Emprata, LLC, Clifton, Virginia 20140

Interfaces, 2019, vol. 49, issue 1, 7-22

Abstract: In 2017, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission completed the world’s first two-sided spectrum auction, reclaiming radio frequency spectrum from television broadcasters to meet exploding demand for mobile broadband, 5G, and other wireless services. Operations research—including a customized series of optimization models, decompositions, cuts, heuristics, large neighborhood searches, and a portfolio of propositional satisfiability solvers whose parameters were determined by machine learning—was essential to the design and implementation of the auction. The auction repurposed 84 megahertz of spectrum and generated gross revenue of nearly $20 billion, providing more than $10 billion in capital for the broadcast television industry and over $7 billion for federal deficit reduction.

Keywords: spectrum; spectrum auctions; reverse auctions; broadcast incentive auctions; optimization; satisfiability solvers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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