SATS: A Universal Spectrum Auction Test Suite

For the past 17 years, much of the work on combinatorial auctions (CAs) has used the Combinatorial Auction Test Suite (CATS) by Leyton-Brown et al. [24]. However, CATS does not include a good model for spectrum auctions, which have become the most important application of CAs. In this paper, we make four contributions. First, we propose the Multi-Region Value Model (MRVM) which captures the difficult to model geographic complementaries of large US and Canadian auctions. Second, we also encode our model as a MIP, making the auction's winner determination problem tractable. Third, we introduce a new spectrum auction test suite (SATS), and release it to the public under an open-source license. SATS includes our new MRVM model, as well as six previously introduced value models from the literature. Fourth, using SATS, we evaluate our MRVM model experimentally: after fitting the model parameters to the bidding data from the 2014 Canadian auction, we show that the MRVM model can represent this auction well. Value Models Model Description Example/Motivating Auctions Stylized Models 1. Base Value Model [6] Two bands: In band A bidders have very high intra-band synergies for having up to 4 blocks; in band B values are additive. Single-region market with one bidder type. e.g., European 2.6 GHz auctions 2. Multi-Band Value Model [6] Similar to the Base Value Model, but different bands and synergies: 24 licenses divided into 4 bands containing 6 blocks each. One band has higher value. e.g., multi-band auctions in the UK,