Operating point selection for primary and secondary users in cognitive radio networks

This paper addresses the problem of opportunistic access of secondary users to licensed spectrum in cognitive radio networks. In order to avoid interference to the licensed primary users, efficient spectrum detection methods need to be developed. For this purpose, in recent years several sensing techniques have been proposed to monitor and regulate the spectrum access to the shared spectrum resources. However, spectrum sensing may be affected by errors in the form of missed-detections (i.e., an occupied spectrum is erroneously detected as free) or false-alarms (i.e., a free spectrum is erroneously detected as occupied). These two magnitudes pose a tradeoff on the design of the spectrum sensing mechanisms meaning that low missed-detection can only be achieved at the expense of high false-alarm and vice versa. Thus, the network designers should adaptively tune the sensing techniques such that the highest perceived Quality of Service (QoS) is achieved by both primary and secondary users. In this paper, a framework is introduced for determining the sensing operating points. Also the definition of Grade-of-Service (GoS) metrics is adopted to the case of primary/secondary users spectrum sharing. It is shown that the operating points of the sensing mechanisms can be easily adjusted according to the current traffic load of both primary and secondary users so that the perceived GoS is maximized. In addition, the Erlang Capacity of the spectrum sharing system for both primary and secondary users is also evaluated considering the effects of erroneous sensing.