Joint Optimal Cooperative Sensing and Resource Allocation in Multichannel Cognitive Radio Networks

In this paper, the problem of joint multichannel cooperative sensing and resource allocation is investigated. A cognitive radio network with multiple potential channels and multiple secondary users is considered. Each secondary user carries out wideband spectrum sensing to get a test statistic for each channel and transmits the test statistic to a coordinator. After collecting all the test statistics from secondary users, the coordinator makes the estimation as to whether primary users are idle or not in the channels. When a channel is estimated to be free, secondary users can get access to the channel with assigned bandwidth and power. An optimization problem is formulated, which maximizes the weighted sum of secondary users´ throughputs while guaranteeing a certain level of protection for the activities of primary users. Although the problem is nonconvex, it is shown that the problem can be solved by bilevel optimization and monotonic programming. This paper is also extended to cases with consideration of proportional and max-min fairness.