Impact of secondary user mobility on spectrum handoff under generalized residual time distributions in cognitive radio networks

Cognitive Radio is an emerging technology to accommodate the growing demand for wireless technology via dynamic spectrum access to enhance spectrum efficiency. Spectrum handoff is an important component of Cognitive Radio technology for practical implementation of radio frequency access strategy and better utilization of spectrum in both primary and secondary networks. The probability of spectrum handoff and expected number of spectrum handoffs are key parameters in performance analysis and design of the cognitive radio network. This work presents an analytical model to evaluate the impact of secondary users’ mobility on intra-cell spectrum handoff considering primary users’ activity model in a cognitive radio network. A standard form of intra-cell spectrum handoff probability and expected number of intra-cell spectrum handoffs are derived for complete call duration of a non-stationary secondary user. The probability and expected number of intra-cell spectrum handoffs of a post inter-cell handoff call are also derived for generalized residual time distributions of call holding time and spectrum holes. A detailed analysis of these performance measuring metrics is presented under the impact of departure rate and cell crossing rate of secondary users. The accuracy of the derived analytical result is validated by Monte-Carlo simulation of the model.