Optimal Spectrum Access for Users in Multi-Channel Cognitive Radio Networks

Abstract

Cognitive Radio, a software defined rad io, is an emerging technology which uses opportunistic spectrum access (OSA) for the efficient utilizat ion of the spectrum. Its main aim is to utilize the unused portions of the spectrum by allo wing unlicensed users (secondary users) to transmit data in absence of primary users. In this paper the assignment of mu ltip le primary and secondary users in a mult iple channel system is addressed with the sole aim of optimizing the total throughput. We have considered an optimal spectrum access (OSA) algorith m for the allot ment of both the primary and secondary users in a mult iple channel system and compared the results with the well-known meta-heuristic techniques such as Simulated Annealing (SA) and Tabu Search (TS). The results reveal that OSA algorithm is mo re efficient as compared to SA and TS as far as throughput optimization is considered.