A Stackelberg Game for DSTC-Based Cognitive Radio Networks with Multiple Cooperative Relays

Abstract

The spectrum utility can be improved when cooperative communication technology is incorporated into cognitive radio network, and both the licensed users and secondary users can benefit from cooperating. In this cooperative cognitive radio network, a primary user and multiple secondary users cooperate with each other adopting space-time coding relay scheme to benefit win-win cooperation. Considering the primary user owns the spectrum and both the primary user and secondary users are selfish and reasonable, this cooperative cognitive network is formulated as a Stackelberg game. Based on utility maximizing, this paper studies the spectrum allocation and relay selection problem. A spectrum allocation algorithm is derived under given number of secondary users, and a low complexity relay selection strategy is proposed to maximize the utility of the primary user while guaranteeing the data rate of the primary user and the fairness among the secondary users. Numerical results show the feasibility and validity of the proposed relay selection scheme.