Cooperative spectrum sharing of multiple primary users and multiple secondary users

This paper proposes a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) based cooperative dynamic spectrum access (DSA) framework that enables multiple primary users (PUs) and multiple secondary users (SUs) to cooperate in spectrum sharing. By exploiting MIMO in cooperative DSA, SUs can relay the primary traffic and send their own data at the same time, which greatly improves the performance of both PUs and SUs when compared to the non-MIMO time-division spectrum sharing schemes. Especially, we focus on the relay selection optimization problem among multiple PUs and multiple SUs. The network-wide cooperation and competition are formulated as a bargaining game, and an algorithm is developed to derive the optimal PU-SU relay assignment and resource allocation. Evaluation results show that both primary and secondary users achieve significant utility gains with the proposed framework, which gives all of them incentive for cooperation.     

Quality of service‐aware coordinated dynamic spectrum access: prioritized Markov model and call admission control

In this paper, we propose a heterogeneous‐prioritized spectrum sharing policy for coordinated dynamic spectrum access networks, where a centralized spectrum manager coordinates the access of primary users (PUs) and secondary users (SUs) to the spectrum. Through modeling the access of PUs and multiple classes of SUs as continuous‐time Markov chains, we analyze the overall system performance with consideration of a grade‐of‐service guarantee for both the PUs and the SUs. In addition, two new call admission control (CAC) strategies are devised in our models to enhance the maximum admitted traffic of SUs for the system. Numerical results show that the proposed heterogeneous‐prioritized policy achieves higher maximum admitted traffic for SUs. The trade‐off between the system's serving capability and the fairness among multiple classes of SUs is also studied. Moreover, the proposed CAC strategies can achieve better performance under max‐sum, proportional, and max‐min fairness criteria than the conventional CAC strategies. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A game approach for cooperative spectrum sharing in cognitive radio networks

We consider the problem of cooperative spectrum sharing among primary users (PUs) and secondary users (SUs) in cognitive radio networks. In our system, each PU selects a proper set of SUs to serve as the cooperative relays for its transmission and in return, leases portion of channel access time to the selected SUs for their own transmission. PU decides how to select SUs and how much time it would lease to SUs, and the cooperative SUs decide their respective power levels in helping PU's transmission, which are proportional to their access times. We assume that both PUs and SUs are rational and selfish. In single‐PU scenario, we formulate the problem as a noncooperative game and prove that it converges to a unique Stackelberg equilibrium. We also propose an iterative algorithm to achieve the unique equilibrium point. We then extend the proposed cooperative mechanism to a multiple‐PU scenario and develop a heuristic algorithm to assign proper SUs to each PU considering both performance and fairness. The simulation results show that when the competition among SUs is fierce, the performance gap between our heuristic algorithm and the optimal one is smaller than 3%. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cooperative primary–secondary dynamic spectrum leasing game via decentralized bargaining

Dynamic spectrum leasing (DSL) has been proposed as a solution for better spectrum utilization. Most of the work focused on non-cooperative game to model primary/secondary users interactions in DSL approach. Some others introduced cooperative game just for secondary users (SUs). In this paper, both primary users (PUs) and SUs incentives and level of satisfactions are considered. Nash bargaining is developed with both PUs and SUs as bargainers. A simple pricing approach is introduced which makes the proposed method practically feasible. On one hand, SUs adjust their power regarding to price and tolerable interference which are announced by PU. On the other hand, PU adjusts its tolerable interference to maximize its profit. Simulation results verify the viability of proposed method.     

Interference‐aware spectrum handover for cognitive radio networks

Cognitive radio (CR) is a promising technique for future wireless networks, which significantly improves spectrum utilization. In CR networks, when the primary users (PUs) appear, the secondary users (SUs) have to switch to other available channels to avoid the interference to PUs. However, in the multi‐SU scenario, it is still a challenging problem to make an optimal decision on spectrum handover because of the the accumulated interference constraint of PUs and SUs. In this paper, we propose an interference‐aware spectrum handover scheme that aims to maximize the CR network capacity and minimize the spectrum handover overhead by coordinating SUs’ handover decision optimally in the PU–SU coexisted CR networks. On the basis of the interference temperature model, the spectrum handover problem is formulated as a constrained optimization problem, which is in general a non‐deterministic polynomial‐time hard problem. To address the problem in a feasible way, we design a heuristic algorithm by using the technique of Branch and Bound. Finally, we combine our spectrum handover scheme with power control and give a convenient solution in a single‐SU scenario. Experimental results show that our algorithm can improve the network performance efficiently.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

MaxDiv: an optimal randomized spectrum access with maximum diversity scheme for cognitive radio networks

Cognitive radio network (CRN) is an emerging technology that can increase the utilization of spectrum underutilized by primary users (PUs). In the literature, most exiting investigations on CRNs have focused on how secondary users (SUs) can coexist harmlessly with the PUs. Despite the importance of such a coexistence issue, it is also crucial to investigate the coexistence of SUs because (i) the PUs usually rarely use the licensed spectrum and (ii) the advantages of CRN will significantly increase the number of SUs in the future. To address this challenging issue, we propose, in this paper, an optimal randomized spectrum access scheme, whose main ideas include the following: (i) an SU shares its sensing results with neighboring SUs and (ii) with the regional sensing results, an SU will access available channels with a non‐uniform probability distribution. We first formulate a multichannel optimal randomized multiple access (MC‐ORMA) problem that aims to maximize the throughput of the CRN; we then develop efficient distributed algorithms to solve the MC‐ORMA problem; we derive the closed‐form value of collision probability for each SU; and finally, we conduct extensive numerical experiments and compare our theoretical analysis with simulation results to demonstrate the advantages of our scheme. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New coalition formation game for spectrum sharing in cognitive radio networks

In cognitive radio networks, Secondary Users (SUs) can access the spectrum simultaneously with the Primary Users (PUs) in underlay mode. In this case, interference caused to the licensed users has to be effectively controlled. The SUs have to make spectrum access decisions in order to enhance their quality of service, but without causing harmful interference to the coexisting PUs. In this paper, we propose a cooperative spectrum decision, which enables the SUs to share the spectrum with the PUs more efficiently. Our approach is based on a new coalitional game in which the coalition value is a function of the SUs' spectral efficiencies, the inter‐SUs interference, and the interference caused to the PUs. By applying new Enter and Leave rules, we obtain a stable coalition structure. Simulation results show that the SUs' spectral efficiencies are considerably increased and that the interference caused to the coexisting PU is reduced by about 7.5% as compared to an opportunistic spectrum access scheme. Moreover, the proposed coalitional game results in a more balanced spectrum sharing in the network. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Joint routing and channel assignment using online learning in cognitive radio networks

Cognitive radio networks (CRNs) are the solution for the problem of underutilizing the licensed spectrum for which there are more requests in the last couple of decades. In CRNs, Secondary users (SUs) are permitted to access opportunistically the licensed spectrum owned by primary users (PUs). In this paper, we address the problem of joint routing and channel assignment for several flows generated by source SUs to a given destination. We consider a more realistic model based on Markov modulated Poisson process for modeling the PUs traffic at each channel and the SUs try to exploit short lived spectrum holes between the PUs packets at the selected channel. The SUs want to cooperatively minimize the end-to-end delay of source SUs flows meanwhile the quality of service requirements of the PUs would be met. To consider partial observation of SUs about PUs activity at all channels and quick adaptation of SUs decisions to environment changes and cooperative interaction of SUs, we use decentralized partially observable markov decision process for modeling the problem. Then, an online learning based scheme is proposed for solving the problem. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed method and the optimal method is close to each other. Also, simulation results show that the proposed method greatly outperforms related works at control of interference to the PUs while maintains the end-to-end delay of SU flows in a low level.

     

Robust Probabilistic Distributed Power Control Algorithm for Underlay Cognitive Radio Networks under Channel Uncertainties

Due to limited cooperation among users and erratic nature of wireless channel, it is difficult for secondary users (SUs) to obtain exact values of system parameters, which may lead to severe interference to primary users (PUs) and cause communication interruption for SUs. In this paper, we study robust power control problem for spectrum underlay cognitive radio networks with multiple SUs and PUs under channel uncertainties. Precisely, our objective is to minimize total transmit power of SUs under the constraints that the satisfaction probabilities of both interference temperature of PUs and signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio of SUs exceed some thresholds. With knowledge of statistical distribution of fading channel, probabilistic constraints are transformed into closed forms. Under a weighted interference temperature constraint, a globally distributed power control iterative algorithm with forgetting factor to increase convergence speed is obtained by dual decomposition methods. Numerical results show that our proposed algorithm outperforms worst case method and non-robust method.     

Cooperative transmissions for secondary spectrum access in cognitive radios

In cognitive radio networks (CRNs), the primary users (PUs) and secondary users (SUs) will interfere with each other, which may severely degrade the performances of both primary and secondary transmissions. In this paper, we propose a two‐phase cognitive transmission (TCT) protocol for secondary spectrum access in CRNs, aiming at improving the secondary transmission performance while guaranteeing the quality‐of‐service (QoS) of primary transmissions. In TCT protocol, SUs gain the opportunities to access the licensed spectrum through assisting primary transmissions using superposition coding (SC), where SUs limit their transmit power to satisfy a given primary QoS requirement and also employ interference cancelation technique to mitigate the interference from PUs. Under the constraint of satisfying a required primary outage probability, we derive the closed‐form expressions of secondary outage probabilities over Rayleigh fading channels for proposed TCT protocol. Numerical and simulation results reveal that, with a guaranteed primary outage probability, TCT achieves better secondary transmission performance than traditional case. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cluster‐based coordination scheme for cooperative cognitive radio networks

In this paper, a cluster‐based two‐phase coordination scheme for cooperative cognitive radio networks is proposed considering both spectrum efficiency and network fairness. Specifically, candidate secondary users (SUs) are first selected by a partner selection algorithm to enter the two‐phase cooperation with primary users (PUs). In phase I, the selected SUs cooperate with PUs to acquire a fraction of time slot as a reward. In phase II, all SUs including the unselected ones share the available spectrum resources in local clusters; each of which is managed by a cluster head who participated in the cooperation in phase I. To improve the total network utility of both PUs and SUs, the maximum weighted bipartite matching is adopted in partner selection. To further improve the network performance and communication reliability, network coding is exploited during the spectrum sharing within the cluster. Simulation results demonstrate that, with the proposed cluster‐based coordination scheme, not only the PUs' transmission performance is improved, but also SUs achieve spectrum access opportunities. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Profit maximization for secondary users in dynamic spectrum auction of cognitive radio networks

As a powerful economic theory, auction mechanism has been extensively studied in dynamic spectrum allocation for cognitive radio networks (CRNs) recently. Different from most of existing works that focused on the mechanism design from the spectrum owner's side, we study from a new perspective on profit maximization of the secondary users (SUs). Because the spectrum auction mechanism has already been designed by the spectrum owner, we derive SUs' optimal bid strategies, which maximize their profits. First, we relax the limitation of SU's value on spectrum band, which is formerly defined as the transmission rate on channel, and introduce the affiliated value considering the impacts from other SUs. Further, the optimal value determination function is derived, which maximizes SU's expected profit; second, we analyze the auctioneer cheating issue, which has great influence on SU's profit, and the Nash equilibrium strategies for both spectrum owner and SUs are derived. Moreover, the repeated auction game mechanism is proposed that resists the auctioneer cheating effectively. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于稳定匹配的认知无线网络协作物理层安全机制

在Underlay认知无线网络中,次用户被允许在主用户进行数据发送时接入主用户的频谱.此时,主用户将对次用户和窃听者造成干扰.利用协作干扰技术,主用户产生的干扰可以被用来改善次用户的物理层安全.基于此,本文针对包含多个主次用户的Underlay认知无线网络,提出了一种新的协作物理层安全机制.为了在保证主用户通信质量的前提下,最大化网络中次用户的总的安全容量,该机制将对次用户进行合理的频谱接入选择和功率控制.另外,考虑到个体理性和自私性对于频谱接入稳定性的影响,该机制利用稳定匹配理论将频谱接入选择问题建模为一对一的双边匹配问题,通过构建主次用户之间的稳定匹配来保证频谱接入的稳定性.仿真结果表明,使用本文所提安全机制,可以在保证主用户通信质量的前提下,稳定而又有效地改善网络中次用户获得的总的安全容量.     

Fair and Efficient Spectrum Splitting for Unlicensed Secondary Users in Cooperative Cognitive Radio Networks

In cooperative cognitive radio networks (CCRNs), a licensed primary-user (PU) is allowed to leverage several unlicensed secondary-users (SUs) to relay its traffic. In this paper, a staged dynamic spectrum allocation (DSA) scheme is proposed for CCRNs. In the first stage, the network is uncongested. A simple pricing based DSA scheme is proposed for the PUs to lease their idled frequency bands to the SUs. And, hence, the initial quality of service (QoS) demands (in terms of the minimum rate requirements) of the PUs and the SUs are both satisfied through direct transmission on the allocated frequency bands. In the second stage, the network reaches the full-loaded situation. Therefore, a cooperative relaying based DSA scheme is proposed to stimulate the PUs to split more extra frequency bands to fulfill the increased QoS demands of the SUs, on condition that the QoS of the PUs are well maintained. By applying the cooperative bargaining game theory in the proposed cooperative relaying based DSA, on the one hand, the SUs can get fairness rate-rewards from the PUs according to the level of contribution that they can make to compensate the PUs for the rate-losses. Hence, the increased QoS demands of the SUs can be accommodated in short term. On the other hand, the PUs could retain the SUs successfully to obtain the long-term revenue, on condition that their QoS constraints are still satisfied. Finally, the analysis results of the proposed bargaining game theoretic DSA scheme (in the second stage) are testified through computer simulations.     

Cooperative bargaining solution for efficient and fair spectrum management in cognitive wireless networks

This paper studies the fairness among the primary users (PUs) and the secondary users (SUs) for resource allocation in cognitive radio systems. We propose a novel co‐opetition strategy based on the Kalai–Smorodinsky bargaining solution to balance the system efficiency and the fairness among users. The strategy formulates the spectrum sharing problem as a nonlinear and integral sum utility maximization subject to a set of constraints describing the co‐opetition among the PUs and the SUs. Then, we solve the maximization problem by proposing a heuristical method that consists of four steps: multi‐PU competition, PU's subcarrier contribution, multi‐SU competition, and SU's subcarrier contribution. Extensive simulation results are presented by comparing the co‐opetition strategy with several conventional ones, including the Kalai–Smorodinsky bargaining solution, sum rate maximization as well as the Max–Min. Results indicate that the co‐opetition strategy can jointly balance the system efficiency and fairness in multiuser resource allocation, as it is able to support more satisfied users and in the meanwhile improve the utility of those unsatisfied. Moreover, the co‐opetition can help enable the coexistence of the PUs and the SUs in cognitive radio systems. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An auction-based approach for spectrum leasing in cooperative cognitive radio networks: when to lease and how much to be leased

The problem of resource allocation in a spectrum leasing scenario in cooperative cognitive radio networks is addressed. The system model consists of a number of primary user (PU) pairs and a secondary user (SU) pair. The SU pair allocates the whole its transmission power in a portion of transmission frame to relay the primary signals. In return, the PU pairs lease their unused portion of transmission frame to the SU pair. In this way, the PU pairs take advantage of their unused portion of time to gain savings in their transmission power. However, a few important questions must be answered: When to lease and how much to be leased. We determine when is beneficial for PUs to lease their unused spectrum portion to the SU and how much of PUs’ resources is optimum to be leased. An efficient auction mechanism is proposed and the existence and uniqueness of the Nash Equilibrium (NE) for the proposed auction game is proved. Since the NE is the solution of a set of fixed point problems, two iterative algorithms, synchronous and asynchronous schemes, are proposed to reach the NE in an iterative manner and their convergence to the fixed point is also proved. Finally, the proposed auction is extended to a network with multiple secondary user pairs. Simulation results acknowledge the more efficient utilization of resources as a result of implementing the proposed auction based resource allocation.     

Joint power allocation and beamforming with users selection for cognitive radio networks via discrete stochastic optimization

Cognitive radio is a promising technique to dynamic utilize the spectrum resource and improve spectrum efficiency. In this paper, we study the problem of mutual interference cancellation among secondary users (SUs) and interference control to primary users (PUs) in spectrum sharing underlay cognitive radio networks. Multiple antennas are used at the secondary base station to form multiple beams towards individual SUs, and a set of SUs are selected to adapt to the beams. For the interference control to PUs, we study power allocation among SUs to guarantee the interference to PUs below a tolerable level while maximizing SUs?? QoS. Based on these conditions, the problem of joint power allocation and beamforming with SUs selection is studied. Specifically, we emphasize on the condition of imperfect channel sensing due to hardware limitation, short sensing time and network connectivity issues, which means that only the noisy estimate of channel information for SUs can be obtained. We formulate the optimization problem to maximize the sum rate as a discrete stochastic optimization problem, then an efficient algorithm based on a discrete stochastic optimization method is proposed to solve the joint power allocation and beamforming with SUs selection problem. We verify that the proposed algorithm has fast convergence rate, low computation complexity and good tracking capability in time-varying radio environment. Finally, extensive simulation results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed scheme.     

Cognitive Radio Networks: Analysis of a Paid-Sharing Approach Based on Admission Control Decisions

Cognitive radio networks have emerged in the last decade as a solution for two problems: spectrum underutilization and spectrum scarcity. The main idea is to manage the radio spectrum more efficiently, where secondary users (SUs) are allowed to exploit the spectrum holes in primary user’s (PUs) frequency bands. We consider a paid-sharing approach where SUs pay for spectrum utilization. A challenging aspect in these mechanisms is how to proceed when a PU needs certain amount of bandwidth and the free capacity is insufficient. We assume a preemptive system where PUs have strict priority over SUs; when a PU arrives to the system and there are not enough free channels to accommodate the new user, one or more SUs will be deallocated. The affected SUs will then be reimbursed, implying some cost for the PUs service provider (SP). This paper bears on the design and analysis of an optimal SU admission control policy; i.e. that maximizes the long-run profit of the SP. We model the optimal revenue problem as a Markov Decision Process and we use dynamic programming and further techniques such as sample-path analysis to characterize properties of the optimal admission control policy. We introduce different changes to one of the best known dynamic programming algorithms incorporating the knowledge of the characterization. In particular, those proposals accelerate the rate of convergence of the algorithm when is applied in the considered context. Our results are validated through numerical examples.     

Analysis of secondary user performance in cognitive radio networks with reactive spectrum handoff

Cognitive radio networks use dynamic spectrum access of secondary users (SUs) to deal with the problem of radio spectrum scarcity . In this paper, we investigate the SU performance in cognitive radio networks with reactive-decision spectrum handoff. During transmission, a SU may get interrupted several times due to the arrival of primary (licensed) users. After each interruption in the reactive spectrum handoff, the SU performs spectrum sensing to determine an idle channel for retransmission. We develop two continuous-time Markov chain models with and without an absorbing state to study the impact of system parameters such as sensing time and sensing room size on several SU performance measures. These measures include the mean delay of a SU, the variance of the SU delay, the SU interruption probability, the average number of interruptions that a SU experiences, the probability of a SU getting discarded from the system after an interruption and the SU blocking probability upon arrival.     

A distributed spectrum handoff MSRV protocol for the cognitive radio ad hoc networks

Wireless Networks - Cognitive radio technology provides opportunistic wireless spectrums access for the secondary users (SUs) while primary users (PUs) are dormant. By emergence of a PU in the...