Distributed resource allocation with imperfect spectrum sensing information and channel uncertainty in cognitive femtocell networks

Abstract

To meet the ever-increasing demands of mobile traffic, femtocells are considered as one of the promising solutions. In this paper, we study a sensing-based resource allocation scenario in cognitive femtocell networks and present an efficient distributed imperfect-spectrum-sensing-based resource allocation (DIRA) algorithm while considering the channel uncertainty to maximize the total data rate of cognitive femtocell networks by jointly optimizing both subchannel assignment and power allocation taking into account the influence of the sensing accuracy. However, the general optimization problem turns out to be a mixed integer programming problem. In order to make it tractable, the original optimization problem is divided into two sub-optimization problems,namely,optimal subchannel allocation and optimal power allocation. Specifically, the proposed distributed fairness-based subchannel allocation (DFSA) algorithm guarantees fairness by introducing channel condition difference and satisfaction degree as the indicators of subchannel allocation. Additionally, optimal power allocation with the consideration of imperfect spectrum sensing and interference uncertainty is performed using the proposed chance-constrained power optimization (CPO) algorithm. Bernstein’s approximation is conducted to make the chance constraint tractable. Simulation results illustrate that the distributed imperfect-spectrum-sensing-based resource allocation (DIRA) algorithm can provide considerable fairness among femtocells and at the same time maximize the total data rate of the cognitive femtocell network.