Distributed Power Control for Cognitive Radios with Primary Protection via Spectrum Sensing

Cognitive radios have been proposed as a solution to the spectrum underutilisation problem and have been proven to increase spectrum efficiency whilst providing opportunities for futuristic technologies. However, increased levels of interference are expected with the introduction of secondary spectrum access, therefore, proper interference management within the cognitive framework is imperative. The interference management problem is herein tackled from the transmitter power control perspective so that transmission by cognitive radio network does not violate the interference level thresholds at the primary receiver. We propose a fully distributed power control framework for cognitive radio network exploiting spectrum use and radio environment knowledge. The proposed algorithm called Distributed Power Control with Primary Protection via Spectrum Sensing has the ability to satisfy tight QoS constraints for cognitive radios as well as to meet interference constraints for primary users.