Optimal Discovery of Bandwidth Opportunities in Spectrum Agile Networks

This paper proposes an adaptive approach that allows wireless devices with multi-band capabilities to determine the optimal number of spectrum bands (SBs) to be explored so that its net benefit from accessing the spectrum is maximized. This approach is optimal in that it strikes a balance between the two conflicting objectives of (1) keeping spectrum sensing overhead low and (2) increasing the chances of finding spectrum opportunities. We also study the effect of several network parameters, such as the primary and secondary traffic loads, on the optimality of the proposed approach.