Modeling cooperation and coordination in opportunistic spectrum access as a turn-taking dilemma

This paper presents several fundamental concepts of game theory, and shows how they relate to the game formulation for a small cluster of opportunistic wireless nodes in cognitive radio networks. It is shown that in some resource allocation scenarios, it may be an optimal strategy for the wireless nodes to endure short-term losses for longer-term gains. In such scenarios, maximum total payoff may be achieved not by simultaneous mutual cooperation, but by taking turns defecting. The paper presents a novel idea of modeling cooperation and coordination for the opportunistic spectrum access as a turn-taking Prisoners dilemma. In our model, a small cluster of cognitive wireless nodes opportunistically access spectrum using spectrum shaped Oppermann sequences. Simulation results show that for the proposed resource allocation game turn-taking memory two strategies outperform traditional tit-for-tat and grim-trigger strategies.