Spectrum Allocation Framework for Multiuser Cognitive Radio Systems

One of the most challenging issues in cognitive radio networks is to dynamically access the radio frequency spectrum in an uninterrupted manner. To achieve this, omniscient allocation of spectrum bands among cognitive radio users is crucial. Most of the existing spectrum allocation methods select a band from a pool according to the service requirements of a single user, neglecting the demand of multiple users. In this paper, we introduce a collaborative framework for allocating multiple bands among multiple secondary users. The proposed method defines a capacity of service metric based on the optimal sensing parameters and utilizes this metric to assign distinct bands to all or highest possible number of contending users. Performance evaluation suggests that the proposed method exhibits significant superiority over conventional approaches in terms of improved throughput and spectrum utilization, reduced interference loss and collision, and hence, enhances dynamic spectrum access and sharing capabilities.