Spectrum sharing models in cognitive radio networks

Spectrum scarcity demands thinking new ways to manage the distribution of radio frequency bands so that its use is more effective. The emerging technology that can enable this paradigm shift is the cognitive radio. Different models for organizing and managing cognitive radios have emerged, all with specific strategic purposes. In this article we review the allocation spectrum patterns of cognitive radio networks and analyse which are the common basis of each model.We expose the vulnerabilities and open challenges that still threaten the adoption and exploitation of cognitive radios for open civil networks.L'escassetat de demandes d'espectre fan pensar en noves formes de gestionar la distribució de les bandes de freqüència de ràdio perquè el seu ús sigui més efectiu. La tecnologia emergent que pot permetre aquest canvi de paradigma és la ràdio cognitiva. Han sorgit diferents models d'organització i gestió de les ràdios cognitives, tots amb determinats fins estratègics. En aquest article es revisen els patrons d'assignació de l'espectre de les xarxes de ràdio cognitiva i s'analitzen quals són la base comuna de cada model. S'exposen les vulnerabilitats i els desafiaments oberts que segueixen amenaçant l'adopció i l'explotació de les ràdios cognitives per obrir les xarxes civils.La escasez de demandas de espectro hacen pensar en nuevas formas de gestionar la distribución de las bandas de frecuencia de radio para que su uso sea más efectivo. La tecnología emergente que puede permitir este cambio de paradigma es la radio cognitiva. Han surgido diferentes modelos de organización y gestión de las radios cognitivas, todos con determinados fines estratégicos. En este artículo se revisan los patrones de asignación del espectro de las redes de radio cognitiva y se analizan cuales son la base común de cada modelo. Se exponen las vulnerabilidades y los desafíos abiertos que siguen amenazando la adopción y la explotación de las radios cognitivas para abrir las redes civiles

Resource Management in Cognitive Radio Networks

In the last decade, the world has witnessed rapid increasing applications of wireless networks. However, with the fixed spectrum allocation policy that has been used since the beginning of the spectrum regulation to assign different spectrum bands to different wireless applications, it has been observed that most of the allocated spectrum bands are underutilized. Therefore, if these bands can be opportunistically used by new emerging wireless networks, the spectrum scarcity can be resolved. Cognitive Radio (CR) is a revolutionary and promising technology that can identify and then exploit the spectrum opportunities. In Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs), the spectrum can be utilized by two kinds of users: Primary Users (PUs) having exclusive licenses to use certain spectrum bands for specific wireless applications, and Secondary Users (SUs) having no spectrum licenses but seeking for any spectrum opportunities. The SUs can make use of the licensed unused spectrum if they do not make any harmful interference to the PUs. However, the variation of the spectrum availability over the time and locations, due to the coexistence with the PUs, and the spread of the spectrum opportunities over wide spectrum bands create a unique trait of the CRNs. This key trait poses great challenges in different aspects of the radio resource management in CRNs such as the spectrum sensing, spectrum access, admission control, channel allocation, Quality-of-Service (QoS) provisioning, etc. In this thesis, we study the resource management of both single-hop and multi-hop CRNs. Since most of the new challenges in CRNs can be tackled by designing an efficient Medium Access Control (MAC) framework, where the solutions of these challenges can be integrated for efficient resource management, we firstly propose a novel MAC framework that integrates a kind of cooperative spectrum sensing method at the physical layer into a cooperative MAC protocol considering the requirements of both the SUs and PUs. For spectrum identification, a computationally simple but efficient sensing algorithm is developed, based on an innovative deterministic sensing policy, to assist each sensing user for identifying the optimum number of channels to sense and the optimum sensing duration. We then develop an admission control scheme and channel allocation policy that can be integrated in the proposed MAC framework to regulate the number of sensing users and number of access users; therefore, the spectrum identification and exploitation can be efficiently balanced. Moreover, we propose a QoS-based spectrum allocation framework that jointly considers the QoS provisioning for heterogeneous secondary Real-Time (RT) and Non-Real Time (NRT) users with the spectrum sensing, spectrum access decision, and call admission control. We analyze the proposed QoS-based spectrum allocation framework and find the optimum numbers of the RT and NRT users that the network can support. Finally, we introduce an innovative user clustering scheme to efficiently manage the spectrum identification and exploitation in multi-hop ad hoc CRNs. We group the SUs into clusters based on their geographical locations and occurring times and use spread spectrum techniques to facilitate using one frequency for the Common Control Channels (CCCs) of the whole secondary network and to reduce the co-channel interference between adjacent clusters by assigning different spreading codes for different clusters. The research results presented in this thesis contribute to realize the concept of the CRNs by developing a practical MAC framework, spectrum sensing, spectrum allocation, user admission control, and QoS provisioning for efficient resource management in these promising networks

Modeling and Analysis of Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks

Eine Welt ohne drahtlose Ad-Hoc Netzwerke ist heute kaum noch vorstellbar.Auf Grund der geringen Kosten und des minimalen Installationsaufwands werden gegenwärtig immer mehr Geräte in immer mehr Anwendungsfeldern eingesetzt. Da die meisten dieser Netzwerke im lizenzfreien ISM-Band operieren, ist dieses heute stark ausgelastet und weist kaum noch freie Kapazitäten auf. Aktuelle Studien der Federal Communication Commission (FCC) belegen allerdings, dass große Teile (bis zu 70%) der lizenzbehafteten Frequenzen ungenutzt sind. Dieser Umstand zeigt, dass das Problem weniger die generelle Knappheit an freien Frequenzen ist, sondern vielmehr in der ineffizienten Verteilung bzw.Nutzung der verfügbaren Resourcen zu suchen ist. Das Hauptaugenmerk der vorliegenden Dissertation liegt in der Verbesserung der Spektrumsauslastung, um dadurch die weitere Entwicklung von drahtlosen Ad-Hoc Netzwerken zu ermöglichen.In dieser Arbeit wird ein neues Spektrum-Management-Konzept mit dem Namen Opportunistic Spectrum Access with Backup channel (OSAB) entwickelt und vorgestellt. Das hierbei zugrunde liegende Konzept gestattet Secondary Users (SUs)dynamisch und flexibel auf Frequenzen unlizenzierter als auch lizensierterFrequenzbänder zu zugreifen, wenn diese vom Primary User (PU) gerade nicht genutzt werden - es also keine Interferenzen geben kann.Da der Zugriff auf das Frequenzspektrum heute existierender Systeme noch sehr unflexibel ist, soll dieser in Zukunft durch Cognitive Radios (CR)weit flexibler und dynamischer gestaltet werden können. Bei der Entstehung von OSAB wurden speziell die unterschiedlichen Eigenschaften verschiedener Frequenzbänder berücksichtigt.Der Hauptvorteil von lizenzbehafteten Bändern ist, dass diese in hoher Anzahl verfügbar sind. Der Hauptvorteil von lizenzfreien Frequenzen ergibt sich hingegen aus der Gleichstellung aller Nutzer. Sobald ein SU einmal einen Kanal belegt hat, kann er nicht mehr aus selbigem verdrängt werden.Kommuniziert OSAB in lizenzierten Bändern, so wird stets ein Backup Channel (BC)vorgehalten um auf das plötzliche Auftreten des PUs reagieren zu können.Das vorgeschlagene Konzept wurde in dieser Arbeit außerdem einer intensiven Analyse mittel Markov-Ketten unterzogen. Die dabei erzielten Ergebnisse zeigen,dass OSAB den Paketverlust und die erwartete Anzahl an Spektrum-Hand-Offs um 60% bzw. 17% reduzieren kann.Um den Nutzen und die Vorteile von OSAB praktisch unter Beweis zu stellen, wurde in der vorliegenden Arbeit weiterhin das MAC-Protokoll SWITCH (opportunisticSpectrum access WITh backup CHannel) entwickelt.SWITCH ist ein dezentrales, asynchrones, verbindungsbasiertes MAC-Protokoll, welchesdurch das Backup-Channel-Konzept in der Lage ist, effektiv auf das plötzliche Eintreffen von PUs zu reagieren.Jeder SU ist dabei mit zwei Transceivern ausgestattet, wobei einer davon stets für die Kommunikation auf dem gemeinsam genutzten Kontroll-Kanal (Common Control Channel) verantwortlich ist. Der zweite Transceiver ist so ausgelegt, dass dieser periodisch alle ungenutzten Kanäle absucht und dynamisch auf diese zugreifen kann. Um den Zustand eines Kanals (belegt/nicht belegt) korrekt erkennen zu können wird in dieser Arbeit eine einfache aber effektive Form des kooperativen Sensings genutzt. Die Performanz des Protokolls wurde mit Hilfe von Simulationen evaluiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass SWITCH im Vergleich zu anderen CR-MAC-Protokollen eine Verbesserung des Durchsatzes von bemerkenswerten 91,7% erzielen konnte. Zusammenfassend kann gesagt werden, dass die vorgeschlagenen Beiträge einen Schritt hin zu einer effektiveren Nutzung der verfügbaren Funkressourcen und zur Erhöhung der Kapazität von drahtlosen Ad-Hoc Netzwerken darstellen.Wireless ad hoc networks are becoming more ubiquitous in terms of devices, application areas, etc. due to their low cost and minimal deployment effort. Since all these networks operate in the unlicensed band, the problems of congestion and spectrum scarcity have arisen. On the other hand, a recent study by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has revealed that swathes of licensed bands, measured by 70%, are unutilized. This highlights that the actual problem is not the scarcity of spectrum but inefficient allocation policies and usage. Therefore, this dissertation is focused on improving spectrum utilization and efficiency to tackle the spectrum scarcity problem and support further wireless ad hoc networks.This thesis proposes a new spectrum management concept called opportunistic spectrum access with backup channel (OSAB). The proposed concept provides secondary users (SUs) (e.g. ad hoc users) with the ability to adaptively and dynamically exploit channels from both licensed and unlicensed bands without interfering the legacy users of licensed bands, i.e. the so called primary users (PUs). Since existing radio systems offer very limited flexibility, cognitive radios (CR), which can sense and adapt to radio environments, are exploited to support such a dynamic concept. For the development of OSAB, the channels' characteristics from each band are taken into consideration. The main advantage of licensed channels is their availability in significant numbers, whereas, the main advantage of unlicensed channels is that all users have the same rights to channel access and thus no preemption occurs once a user obtains a channel. In addition, OSAB uses a backup channel (BC) to handle the appearance of PUs and thus facilitates SU communication. The proposed concept is extensively evaluated using a Markov chain model and compared to existing spectrum management approaches such as opportunistic spectrum access (OSA). The results indicate that OSAB decreases the dropping probability and the expected number of spectrum handoffs for SUs compared to OSA by 60% and 17% respectively.In order to apply OSAB practically, we develop a MAC protocol that reacts efficiently to sudden appearance of PUs. The new protocol is named opportunistic Spectrum access WITh backup CHannel (SWITCH) protocol. SWITCH is a decentralized, asynchronous, and contention-based MAC protocol. The BC's concept makes SWITCH extremely robust to the appearance of PUs. Each SU is equipped with two transceivers, one is tuned to a common control channel for the negotiation purpose with other SUs while the other is designed specifically to periodically sense and dynamically use the identified unused channels. To obtain the channel state accurately, we propose an efficient spectrum sensing strategy. This strategy is based on cooperative spectrum sensing among SUs. The performance of proposed protocol is evaluated through simulations. The results show that SWITCH accomplishes a remarkable 91.7% throughput gain over other CR-MAC protocolsTo conclude, the proposed contributions are a step forward towards efficient use of available radio resources and improve the spectrum capacity for wireless ad hoc networks

Three social science disciplines in Central and Eastern Europe: handbook on economics, political science and sociology (1989-2001)

Content: Ulrike Becker, Max Kaase, Gabor Klaniczay, and Vera Sparschuh: Social Sciences in Central and Eastern Europe on the Verge of EU Enlargement (7-10); Andrei Plesu: Financing Difference. Fostering the Social Sciences in the Field of Tension Between Homogenization and Differentiation (12-16); Elemer Henkiss: Brilliant Ideas or Brilliant Errors? (17-24); Janos Matyas Kovacs: Business as (Un)usual (26-33); Mitko Dimitrov: Bulgaria (34-49); Frantisek Turnovec: Czech Republic (50-64); Tiia Püss: Estonia (65-82); Laszlo Csaba: Hungary (83-101); Raita Karnite: Latvia (102-120); Linas Cekanavicius: Lithuania (121-134); Tadeusz Kowalik: Poland (135-151); Paul Dragos Aligica: Romania (152-167); Julius Horvath: Slovakia (168-186); Joze Mencinger: Slovenia (187-194); Hans-Jürgen Wagener: Demand and Supply of Economic Knowledge in Transition Countries (195-203); Hans-Dieter Klingemann: Political Science in Central and Eastern Europe: National Development and International Integration (206-212); Georgi Karasimeonov: Bulgaria (213-225); Jan Holzer and Pavel Pseja: Czech Republic (226-245); Raivo Vetik: Estonia (246-257); Mate Szabo: Hungary (258-274); Andris Runcis: Latvia (275-285); Algis Krupavicius: Lithuania (286-305); Stanislaw Gebethner and Radoslaw Markowski: Poland (306-321); Daniel Barbu: Romania (322-342); Darina Malova and Silvia Mihalikova: Slovakia (343-357); Danica Fink-Hafner: Slovenia (358-374); Pal Tamas: Followers or Activists? Social Scientists in the Reality Shows of Transformation (376-385); Nikolai Genov: Bulgaria (386-404); Michal Illner: Czech Republic (405-424); Mikk Titma: Estonia (425-436); Denes Nemedi and Peter Robert: Hungary (437-451); Aivars Tabuns: Latvia (452-466); Anele Vosyliute: Lithuania (467-483); Janusz Mucha and Pawel Zalecki: Poland (484-501); Maria Larionescu: Romania (502-517); Zuzana Kusa, Bohumil Buzik, Ludovit Turcan and Robert Klobucky: Slovakia (518-535); Frane Adam and Matej Makarovic: Slovenia (536-547); Piotr Sztompka: The Condition of Sociology in East-Central Europe (548-556); Mihaly Sarkany: Cultural and Social Anthropology in Central and Eastern Europe (558-566); Thomas Kucera and Olga Kucerova: Population science in Central and Eastern Europe: Implications for Research and Practice (567-577); Marie-Claude Maurel: Central European Geography and the Post-Socialist Transformation. A Western Point of View (578-587); Grazyna Skapska: Law and Society in a Natural Laboratory: the Case of Poland in the Broader Context of East-Central Europe (588-603)