The management of spectrum is a difficult task for regulatory agencies. In particular, the continuous development of new technologies and uses for spectrum has prompted these agencies to move towards more flexible assignment mechanisms in order to be able to respond to the changing spectrum management landscape, while still complying with economic and welfare considerations. Traditional static spectrum assignment produces inefficiencies that grow with the evolution and rise of new technologies. However, market based mechanisms which leave spectrum assignment decisions to market interactions can be used to setup market environments that assign use of spectrum to those who value it most and can use it more effectively. An adequate regulatory framework that incorporates market based mechanisms such as spectrum trading can liberate the regulator from micro managing spectrum assignments while also stimulating technological innovation and social goals. This paper presents a preliminary study of the technical infrastructure required to implement a spectrum trading market over WiMAX using several architectures based on the classification that we proposed in. This study is the first in a series of studies designed to explore the implications of different trading architectures across technologies. We conclude by presenting a cost model for the analysis of spectrum trading environments and use it to evaluate our chosen architectures for WiMAX scenarios
