Distributed spectrum sensing for cognitive radio networks with heterogeneous traffic

Cooperative spectrum sensing improves reliability and the detection performance of sensing. However, the fully cooperative scenario may not be realistic to assume in many cases. We consider a cognitive radio network with heavy traffic users and light traffic users and analyze their behavior towards sensing using the concept of mixed strategy Nash equilibrium. Further, we design a distributed game using evolutionary game theory such that as long as light traffic users are present, they share the sensing responsibility while heavy traffic users get a free ride. Finally, the evolution dynamics is shown to converge to the evolutionarily stable strategy for the case of multiple users.