Optimal sequential detection in cognitive radio networks

Cognitive radio (CR) can successfully deal with the growing demand and the scarcity of the wireless spectrum. To increase the spectrum usage, CR technology allows secondary users to access licensed spectrum bands. Since licensed users have priorities to use the bands, the secondary users need to continuously monitor the activities of the licensed users to avoid interference and collisions. In this paper, we design sequential detection to maximize the throughput of secondary users for a given detection probability of the licensed users. We further investigate the impact of different system parameters on the performance. Numerical results are given to verify the theoretical analysis and demonstrate the performance.