A Multiagent Based Scheme for Unlicensed Spectrum Access in CR Networks

Abstract

In recent wireless network domains static spectrum access is a major concern. Generally, this access leads to spectrum scarcity problem by creating empty holes or white spaces. However, the scarcity is temporary and can be alleviated if spectrum access is performed dynamically and efficiently. One important step towards dynamic spectrum access is the development of cognitive radio (CR) technology, which senses nearby spectrum portions (or bands) and tries to use them either opportunistically or by negotiating with the neighboring users. Nonetheless, dynamic spectrum access raises several challenges which need to be addressed in detail. These challenges include efficient allocation of spectrum for users in order to maximize spectrum utilization and to avoid user level conflicts both under licensed and unlicensed bands. In this paper, considering the relative rarity of solutions for unlicensed spectrum access and their inadequacy, we propose a scheme, where the CR devices (equipped with agents) interact with their neighbors to form several coalitions over the unlicensed bands. These types of coalitions can provide a less-conflicted access as the agents mutually agree for spectrum sharing and they allow other CR users to enter in their vicinity of acquired spectrum via bilateral message exchanges. Further, we present continuous time Markov chains to model the spectrum access process in continuous time and derive important performance metric as the blocking probability for without and with queuing systems. Amongst others, the important comparisons we made between analytical and simulation results in terms of blocking probability verify that our proposed model is correct. In essence, our proposed solution aims to increase dynamic spectrum usage by enabling cooperation between the users.