Spectrum sharing and resource allocation for energy-efficient heterogeneous cognitive radio networks with femtocells

In heterogeneous wireless networks with femtocells, the issue of interference between femtocells and macrocells should be carefully considered. Using cognitive radio for interference management is a promising technique in heterogeneous wireless networks with femtocells. In this paper, we study the energy efficiency aspect of spectrum sharing and resource allocation in heterogeneous wireless networks with femtocells and cognitive radios. We use the price of interference to model the interference between femtocells and macrocells. We formulate the problem of interference management and power allocation as a Stackelberg game. In addition, an iteration algorithm based on price updating is proposed to obtain the Stackelberg equilibrium solution to the resource allocation problem for energy efficiency. Simulation results are presented to show that the proposed scheme can improve energy efficiency significantly in heterogeneous wireless networks with femtocells and cognitive radios.