Statistics of aggregate interference in cognitive wireless ad hoc networks

Cognitive radios, using their advanced features including adaptability and spectrum sensing, can coexist and share the spectrum with licensed radios, under the constraint that their aggregate interference remains below a manageable level. Knowledge of interference statistics is therefore of significant importance in cognitive radio networks (CRNs). In this paper, assuming that the cognitive wireless nodes are randomly distributed according to a Poisson point process (PPP) and use ALOHA as the media access control (MAC) scheme, we lay out a framework to obtain statistics of aggregate secondary interference by incorporating spectrum sensing and power control parameters chosen by secondary nodes in our derivations. We use tools from theory of point processes for this purpose and consider different assumptions on spectrum sensing and power control capabilities in the CRN. Our simulation results confirm the accuracy of the obtained analytical derivations.