Competitive Spectrum Management with Incomplete Information

This paper studies an interference interaction (game) between selfish and independent wireless communication systems in the same frequency band. Each system (player) has incomplete information about the other player's channel conditions. A trivial Nash equilibrium point in this game is where players mutually full spread (FS) their transmit spectrum and interfere with each other. This point may lead to poor spectrum utilization from a global network point of view and even for each user individually. In this paper, we provide a closed form expression for a non pure-FS epsilon-Nash equilibrium point; i.e., an equilibrium point where players choose FDM for some channel realizations and FS for the others. We show that operating in this non pure-FS epsilon-Nash equilibrium point increases each user's throughput and therefore improves the spectrum utilization, and demonstrate that this performance gain can be substantial. Finally, important insights are provided into the behaviour of selfish and rational wireless users as a function of the channel parameters such as fading probabilities, the interference-to-signal ratio

Spectrum Coordination in Energy Efficient Cognitive Radio Networks

Device coordination in open spectrum systems is a challenging problem, particularly since users experience varying spectrum availability over time and location. In this paper, we propose a game theoretical approach that allows cognitive radio pairs, namely the primary user (PU) and the secondary user (SU), to update their transmission powers and frequencies simultaneously. Specifically, we address a Stackelberg game model in which individual users attempt to hierarchically access to the wireless spectrum while maximizing their energy efficiency. A thorough analysis of the existence, uniqueness and characterization of the Stackelberg equilibrium is conducted. In particular, we show that a spectrum coordination naturally occurs when both actors in the system decide sequentially about their powers and their transmitting carriers. As a result, spectrum sensing in such a situation turns out to be a simple detection of the presence/absence of a transmission on each sub-band. We also show that when users experience very different channel gains on their two carriers, they may choose to transmit on the same carrier at the Stackelberg equilibrium as this contributes enough energy efficiency to outweigh the interference degradation caused by the mutual transmission. Then, we provide an algorithmic analysis on how the PU and the SU can reach such a spectrum coordination using an appropriate learning process. We validate our results through extensive simulations and compare the proposed algorithm to some typical scenarios including the non-cooperative case and the throughput-based-utility systems. Typically, it is shown that the proposed Stackelberg decision approach optimizes the energy efficiency while still maximizing the throughput at the equilibrium.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, to appear in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technolog

Adaptive modulation for cognitive radios

This thesis examines the benefits of using adaptive modulation in terms of spectral efficiency and probability of bit error for cognitive radio networks. In channels that fluctuate dynamically over time, systems that are based upon the conventional methods of fixed modulation formats do not perform well. Adaptive modulation provides many parameters that can be adjusted relative to the channel fading, including data rate, transmit power, instantaneous BER, symbol rate, and channel code rate or scheme. In this thesis, a systematic study on the increase in spectral efficiency obtained by optimally varying combinations of the modulation formats for a cognitive radio is provided...Simulations show how adaptively changing the modulation schemes improves the performance of the system by meeting a BER constraint over a range of SNR --Abstract, page iii

Resource allocation in realistic wireless cognitive radios networks

Cognitive radio networks provide an effective solution for improving spectrum usage for wireless users. In particular, secondary users can now compete with each other to access idle, unused spectrum from licensed primary users in an opportunistic fashion. This is typically done by using cognitive radios to sense the presence of primary users and tuning to unused spectrum bands to boost efficiency. Expectedly, resource allocation is a very crucial concern in such settings, i.e., power and rate control, and various studies have looked at this problem area. However, the existing body of work has mostly considered the interactions between secondary users and has ignored the impact of primary user behaviors. Along these lines, this dissertation addresses this crucial concern and proposes a novel primary-secondary game-theoretic solution which rewards primary users for sharing their spectrum with secondary users. In particular, a key focus is on precisely modeling the performance of realistic channel models with fading. This is of key importance as simple additive white Gaussian noise channels are generally not very realistic and tend to yield overly optimistic results. Hence the proposed solution develops a realistic non-cooperative power control game to optimize transmit power in wireless cognitive radios networks running code division multiple access up-links. This model is then analyzed for fast and slow flat fading channels. Namely, the fading coefficients are modeled using Rayleigh and Rician distributions, and closed-form expressions are derived for the average utility functions. Furthermore, it is also shown that the strategy spaces of the users under realistic conditions must be modified to guarantee the existence of a unique Nash Equilibrium point. Finally, linear pricing is introduced into the average utility functions for both Rayleigh and Rician fast-flat fading channels, i.e., to further improve the proposed models and minimize transmission power for all users. Detailed simulations are then presented to verify the performance of the schemes under the proposed realistic channel models. The results are also compared to those with more basic additive white Gaussian noise channels

Adaptive resource allocation for cognitive wireless ad hoc networks

Widespread use of resource constrained wireless ad hoc networks requires careful management of the network resources in order to maximize the utilization. In cognitive wireless networks, resources such as spectrum, energy, communication links/paths, time, space, modulation scheme, have to be managed to maintain quality of service (QoS). Therefore in the first paper, a distributed dynamic channel allocation scheme is proposed for multi-channel wireless ad hoc networks with single-radio nodes. The proposed learning scheme adapts the probabilities of selecting each channel as a function of the error in the performance index at each step. Due to frequent changes in topology and flow traffic over time, wireless ad hoc networks require a dynamic routing protocol that adapts to the changes of the network while allocating network resources. In the second paper, approximate dynamic programming (ADP) techniques are utilized to find dynamic routes, while solving discrete-time Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation forward-in-time for route cost. The third paper extends the dynamic routing to multi-channel multi-interface networks which are affected by channel uncertainties and fading channels. By the addition of optimization techniques through load balancing over multiple paths and multiple wireless channels, utilization of wireless channels throughout the network is enhanced. Next in the fourth paper, a decentralized game theoretic approach for resource allocation of the primary and secondary users in a cognitive radio networks is proposed. The priorities of the networks are incorporated in the utility and potential functions which are in turn used for resource allocation. The proposed game can be extended to a game among multiple co-existing networks, each with different priority levels --Abstract, page iv

Mobile Networks

The growth in the use of mobile networks has come mainly with the third generation systems and voice traffic. With the current third generation and the arrival of the 4G, the number of mobile users in the world will exceed the number of landlines users. Audio and video streaming have had a significant increase, parallel to the requirements of bandwidth and quality of service demanded by those applications. Mobile networks require that the applications and protocols that have worked successfully in fixed networks can be used with the same level of quality in mobile scenarios. Until the third generation of mobile networks, the need to ensure reliable handovers was still an important issue. On the eve of a new generation of access networks (4G) and increased connectivity between networks of different characteristics commonly called hybrid (satellite, ad-hoc, sensors, wired, WIMAX, LAN, etc.), it is necessary to transfer mechanisms of mobility to future generations of networks. In order to achieve this, it is essential to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the performance of current protocols and the diverse topologies to suit the new mobility conditions