Design of advance spectrum auctions for the FCC

CRA was retained to develop alternative and advanced auction designs for the FCC’s spectrum auctions. The designs and recommended implementations allow for very large and combinatorial auctions to be run efficiently and competitively, and ensure that the objectives of the FCC are achieved. These auction designs enable the FCC to choose the best auction format for each of its auctions. The CRA team also developed prototype software for running advanced, combinatorial auctions. The software compared how various rules for combinatorial auctions performed versus the FCC’s existing rules and software. The key steps in the undertaking included developing design specifications and combinatorial algorithms, creating a database, coding, testing, experimenting, and documenting.