Optimal cooperative beamforming design in cognitive radio networks with multiple secondary user links

Abstract

SummaryIn this paper, a novel beamforming method is proposed for a more realistic cognitive radio system with several secondary transmitters and receivers, a number of relays, and 1 primary transmitter and receiver. When the primary user link is idle, all secondary transmitters access temporal spectrum holes to simultaneously broadcast their information to the relays each associated with an infinite buffer. In the next stage, the relays transmit the information to the secondary receivers using a cooperative beamforming method no matter whether primary user link is silent or not. The proposed method of designing the beamforming vector enables the system to maximize the power received by the secondary users while maintaining the interference plus noise power at the primary user receiver below a predefined threshold. Results of simulations confirm validity of the method and improved performance compared to the zero‐forcing beamforming. The impact of channel quality between nodes on the performance of the system is also investigated.