Pricing-based spectrum sharing in cognitive radio networks

In cognitive radio networks, secondary users access the licensed spectrum and cause interference to the primary user. Hence, proper compensation for the primary user is necessary to ensure the coexistence. We propose a pricing-based spectrum sharing scheme in a competitive cognitive radio network. The primary user charges the secondary users for the interference, aiming to improve its quality of service (QoS). While secondary users adjust their transmission power in order to maximize their own utility. The spectrum sharing problem is first cast into a Stackelberg game, and then, we prove that there exists a unique equilibrium point and obtain the optimal price. Numerical results show that the proposed spectrum sharing scheme can improve performance of both primary users and secondary users.