Spectrum allocation and medium access in cognitive radio wireless networks

This paper focuses on spectrum allocation and medium access in future cognitive radio wireless networks, e.g. IEEE 802.22 networks. For a given network topology, the proposed spectrum allocation method first generates an interference graph (or conflict graph) based on the network topology, traffic flows and interference constraints. Then a graph coloring algorithm is applied to the interference graph and the chromatic number of the graph is obtained. This number is the minimum number of distinct spectrum slices required. Further, spectrum allocation is done based on the max-min fair share algorithm or proportional fair algorithm according to the spectrum demands for different spectrum blocks. For medium access among secondary users, we then describe and implement a MAC protocol for 802.22-type cognitive radio networks. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate its effectiveness.