About

Michael Honig is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northwestern University. His research interests encompass communications, signal processing, and networks, with recent work focusing on wireless resource allocation, spectrum access rights and market mechanisms, and macroeconomic modeling. Honig holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering with honors from Stanford University. His contributions to the field include advancing understanding in spectrum management, wireless communication systems, and network optimization, making significant impacts through his research and publications.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Computer network
• Telecommunications
• Business
• Microeconomics
• Economics

Selected publications

• ML-Assisted Chirp Detection via Beamforming for Radar-Communication Coexistence

  2025-05-12

  articleSenior author

  As part of the U.S. National Spectrum Strategy, the 3.1−3.45 GHz band has been identified as a candidate for coexistence with commercial broadband access. The band currently supports defense radar systems with strict covertness and legacy constraints, which rules out cooperative methods for radar-communication system coexistence. This paper proposes a Machine Learning (ML)-assisted approach to detecting radar chirps in a non-cooperative spectrum-sharing environment. Inputs to the ML algorithm are beamforming errors observed during uplink training. We develop both supervised and unsupervised detection algorithms that operate without explicit channel estimation, spectrum sensing, or prior knowledge of radar parameters. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed ML algorithms provide significant improvements over a prior univariate detection benchmark. Specifically, supervised models achieve Area Under Curve scores below 1%, while the unsupervised OCSVM achieves approximately 3% AUC, highlighting the efficacy of multivariate decision functions in capturing complex temporal and spectral interference patterns. The numerical results illustrate the potential of ML techniques to facilitate robust non-cooperative spectrum sharing between radar and communication systems in dynamically changing environments.

  PublisherDOI

• Sharing with Frictions: Limited Transfers and Costly Inspections

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2025-12-25

  preprintOpen access

  The radio spectrum suitable for commercial wireless services is limited. A portion of the radio spectrum has been reserved for institutions using it for non-commercial purposes such as federal agencies, defense, public safety bodies and scientific institutions. In order to operate efficiently, these incumbents need clean spectrum access. However, commercial users also want access, and granting them access may materially interfere with the existing activity of the incumbents. Conventional market based mechanisms for allocating scarce resources in this context are problematic. Allowing direct monetary transfers to and from public or scientific institutions risks distorting their non-commercial mission. Moreover, often only the incumbent knows the exact value of the interference it experiences, and, likewise, only commercial users can predict accurately the expected monetary outcome from sharing the resource. Thus, our problem is to determine the efficient allocation of resources in the presence of private information without the use of direct monetary transfers. The problem is not unique to spectrum. Other resources that governments hold in trust share the same feature. We propose a novel mechanism design formulation of the problem, characterize the optimal mechanism and describe some of its qualitative properties.

  PublisherDOI

• Costly Measurements to Incentivize Spectrum Sharing

  2025-05-12

  article

  Connectivity services, ranging from cellular broadband to private networks and satellite communications, are driving an unprecedented demand for spectrum. However, much of the prime spectrum is locked into existing federal and scientific allocations, which often by law cannot be relocated in exchange for monetary transfer, thus making market-based reallocation strategies infeasible. We investigate a spectrum allocation mechanism that does not require monetary transfers but instead utilizes measurements that may be costly as a way to incentivize truthful reporting. We consider a scenerio involving three agents: An incumbent scientific or federal user (SFU), a commercial user (CU), and a regulator. The incumbent derives value from its current exclusive use of a spectrum band but faces increasing disutility as soon as the CU is allowed to either share the same band or use an adjacent band, while the CU benefits from gaining access. The regulator allocates spectrum based on the incumbent’s reported disutility and the CU’s utility, with provisions to verify reports and penalize dishonesty through spectrum reallocation. Our analysis demonstrates that this mechanism incentivizes truthful reporting and ensures more efficient spectrum utilization, supported by theoretical and experimental evidence on synthetic data.

  PublisherDOI

• Sharing with Frictions: Limited Transfers and Costly Inspections

  ArXiv.org · 2025-12-25

  articleOpen access

  The radio spectrum suitable for commercial wireless services is limited. A portion of the radio spectrum has been reserved for institutions using it for non-commercial purposes such as federal agencies, defense, public safety bodies and scientific institutions. In order to operate efficiently, these incumbents need clean spectrum access. However, commercial users also want access, and granting them access may materially interfere with the existing activity of the incumbents. Conventional market based mechanisms for allocating scarce resources in this context are problematic. Allowing direct monetary transfers to and from public or scientific institutions risks distorting their non-commercial mission. Moreover, often only the incumbent knows the exact value of the interference it experiences, and, likewise, only commercial users can predict accurately the expected monetary outcome from sharing the resource. Thus, our problem is to determine the efficient allocation of resources in the presence of private information without the use of direct monetary transfers. The problem is not unique to spectrum. Other resources that governments hold in trust share the same feature. We propose a novel mechanism design formulation of the problem, characterize the optimal mechanism and describe some of its qualitative properties.

  PublisherOA PDF

• Downlink Spectral Efficiency of Leo Satellite Constellations

  2025-06-22

  articleSenior author

  This paper investigates the downlink spectral efficiency of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations, where spectral efficiency refers to the entire network's total data rate per unit spectrum per unit area on the Earth's surface. For practicality, all links employ single-user codebooks and treat interference as noise. A key finding is that, unlike terrestrial networks, the spectral efficiency of LEO constellations does not increase indefinitely with satellite density. Under typical assumptions about antenna array beam widths, this study explores the satellite density that maximizes spectral efficiency. As a special case, a regular deployment of satellites and ground terminals is analyzed across various densities. Simulation results reveal that regular configurations achieve higher spectral efficiency compared to random configurations. Furthermore, while the total downlink capacity of any LEO constellation remains significantly lower than that of terrestrial networks, there is substantial potential for growth-up to a few orders of magnitude-compared to current capacity levels.

  PublisherDOI

• Spectrum Rights in Outer Space

  Journal of Information Policy · 2024-12-01 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract This article presents a comprehensive summary of the regulatory environment confronting low earth orbit, non-geostationary satellite orbit (LEO NGSO) communication satellites and critically evaluates analogies from terrestrial spectrum management as possibilities for LEO NGSO satellites. This analysis provides a framework for empirical analysis of the alternatives considered.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Chirp Detection via Adaptive Beamforming for Radar-Communication Coexistence

  2024-09-10 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  We consider an incumbent radar system which coexists with an OFDM communication system. A method for detecting the presence of an incumbent radar (chirp) signal is proposed assuming the radar and communication systems do not coordinate spectrum access or share system or signal parameters. The detection strategy for the OFDM system relies on adaptive beamforming, and searches for anomalies in residual errors across subcarriers and OFDM symbols. It does not require channel state information or knowledge of radar waveform parameters. We first apply the method to fully digital arrays, then extend it to hybrid True Time Delay arrays for wideband beamforming. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed detection algorithm in achieving a low probability of misdetection for both types of arrays under various scenarios.

  PublisherDOI

• How Loan Rigidities and Myopic Monetary Policy Can Create Credit Cycles

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Spectral Efficiency of Low Earth Orbit Satellite Constellations

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-11-29 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  This paper investigates the maximum achievable downlink spectral efficiency of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations. Spectral efficiency is defined here as the total network sum rate per unit bandwidth per unit area of Earth's surface. To estimate an upper bound on spectral efficiency, the problem is reduced to a single-channel network model, where all satellites and ground terminals operate over a common narrowband frequency channel. Within this model a regular configuration is proposed and evaluated, with satellites and terminals arranged in hexagonal lattices. Numerical results validate that this configuration provides a robust upper bound for spectral efficiency in more complex multi-channel LEO networks, especially when satellite-terminal associations are based on minimum distance. Further improvements are achieved by adjusting association rules to prevent neighboring satellites from simultaneously serving terminals in the same region, highlighting the critical role of interference-aware association strategies.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• How Loan Rigidities and Myopic Monetary Policy Can Create Credit Cycles

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Adaptive Transceivers for Wireless Networks

  NSF · $245k · 2003–2007

Frequent coauthors

• Randall A. Berry

  95 shared

• Dongning Guo

  Northwestern University

  50 shared

• Rakesh Vohra

  27 shared

• M. Eugenia Fernández

  Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

  25 shared

• Pablo M. Olmos

  25 shared

• Camilo G. Taborda

  Universidad de Medellín

  25 shared

• Fernando Pérez‐Cruz

  25 shared

• Juan José Murillo-Fuentes

  Universidad de Sevilla

  25 shared

Labs

• Communications and Networking LaboratoryPI