Spectrum handoff process with aging solution for secondary users in priority based cognitive networks

Abstract

Spectrum handoff is a process performed by secondary users in cognitive radio networks. To accomplish this, the base station that coordinates the secondary users decides which user will make the spectrum handoff process according to certain criteria. The priority classes of the secondary users are at the top of these criteria. In traditional priority based queues, packets with higher priority are transmitted first, and lower priority packets waits for the other higher-priority packet transmissions to finish. In this study, priority data traffic is used in queue structure in order to meet the different requirements of secondary users. In addition, we have added the aging solution to the spectrum handoff mechanism in order to shorten the long wait times of low priority packets. The aging solution is defined as the increase of the priority of lower priority packets waiting for too long in the queue over certain waiting periods. Analytical and simulation models of the aging solution have been designed in order to prove validation. It has been shown that the total number of spectrum handoff on the network for different priority packets and different loads is reduced significantly.