  In this paper, we introduce an application-aware spectrum sharing approach
for sharing the Federal under-utilized 3.5 GHz spectrum with commercial users.
In our model, users are running elastic or inelastic traffic and each
application running on the user equipment (UE) is assigned a utility function
based on its type. Furthermore, each of the small cells users has a minimum
required target utility for its application. In order for users located under
the coverage area of the small cells' eNodeBs, with the 3.5 GHz band resources,
to meet their minimum required quality of experience (QoE), the network
operator makes a decision regarding the need for sharing the macro cell's
resources to obtain additional resources. Our objective is to provide each user
with a rate that satisfies its application's minimum required utility through
spectrum sharing approach and improve the overall QoE in the network. We
present an application-aware spectrum sharing algorithm that is based on
resource allocation with carrier aggregation to allocate macro cell permanent
resources and small cells' leased resources to UEs and allocate each user's
application an aggregated rate that can at minimum achieves the application's
minimum required utility. Finally, we present simulation results for the
performance of the proposed algorithm.
