Handoff reducing model for multichannel access in cognitive radio networks

The specificity of overlay spectrum sharing in cognitive radio network, is that the secondary user has to handoff and vacate immediately the channel once the Primary User appears and reclaims it. Such handoff becomes more frequent specially in case of multichannel access since that in a wider band, a PU is likely to reclaim a part of the band more quickly, and the SU has to switch to a different set of channels. However, a frequent handoff may alter the quality of the communication and generate an additional delay since that for each channel switching a sensing phase has to take place, additionally to channel evacuation and link set up times. In this paper we propose a Holding Time based access model in order to avoid such handoff. The effectiveness of this model is investigated within a Common Pilot Channel framework.