NeXt generation/

dynamic spectrum access/

cognitive radio wireless networks :
A survey

1
Outline

 Introduction
 Cognitive radio
 The xG network architecture
 Spectrum sensing
 Spectrum management
 Spectrum mobility
 Spectrum sharing
 Upper layer issues
 Cross-layer designs
 Conclusions

2
Introduction

 Today’s wireless networks are regulated by a

fixed spectrum assignment policy
 the spectrum is regulated by governmental
agencies;
 the spectrum is assignment to license holders or
services on a long term basis for large
geographical regions.
 According to FCC, temporal and
geographical variations in the utilization of the
assigned spectrum range from 15% to 85%.

3
Spectrum Usage

 The signal strength distribution over a large

portion of the wireless spectrum

4
Introduction (cont’d)

 Problem of the fixed spectrum management

 Some bands were allocated to services which have not
been utilized at all, but it has been just left unused over a
decade (e.g. ERMES paging system, TFTS in-flight phone)
 Unbalanced allocation due to miss-prediction of the
demand (e.g. limited band for 3G system)
 Difficulty for new applications/services to gain access
 The limited available spectrum and the inefficiency
in the spectrum usage necessitate a new
communication paradigm to exploit the existing
wireless spectrum opportunistically.

5
Introduction (cont’d)

 Dynamic spectrum access is proposed to solve the

spectrum inefficiency problems.

 DARPAs approach on Dynamic Spectrum Access

network, the so-called NeXt Generation (xG)
program aims to implement the policy based
intelligent radios know as cognitive radios.
 The inefficient usage of the existing spectrum can be
improved through opportunistic access to the licensed
bands without interfering with the existing users.

6
Introduction (cont’d)

 The key enabling technology of xG networks is the

cognitive radio (CR).
 Cognitive radio techniques provide the capability to use or
share the spectrum in an opportunistic manner.
 Dynamic spectrum access techniques allow the cognitive
radio to operate in the best available channel.

7
Introduction – Main Functions of CR
(cont’d)

 The main functions for cognitive radios in xG

networks:
 Spectrum sensing
 Detecting unused spectrum and sharing the spectrum without
harmful interference with other users
 Spectrum management
 Capturing the best available spectrum to meet user
communication requirements
 Spectrum mobility
 Maintaining seamless communication requirements during the
transition to better spectrum
 Spectrum sharing
 Providing the fair spectrum scheduling method among
coexisting xG users

8
Introduction – xG Network
Communication Functionalities (cont’d)

9
 Cognitive Radio

A “Cognitive Radio” is a radio that can change its

transmitter parameters based on interaction with
the environment in which it operates.*
 Cognitive capability
 to capture or sense the information from its radio
environment
 to identify the portions of the spectrum that are unused
at a specific time or location
 Reconfigurability
 The CR can be programmed to transmit and receive on
a variety of frequencies and to use different transmission
access technologies by its hardware design.

* FCC, ET Docket No 03-222 Notice of proposed rule making and order, Dec. 2003
10
Cognitive Radio (cont’d)

 The CR enables the usage of temporally unused

spectrum, which is referred to as spectrum hole or
white space.

11
Cognitive Radio - Physical Architecture
(cont’d)

 In the RF front-end, the received signal is amplified, mixed

and A/D converted.
 In the baseband processing unit, the signal is
modulated/demodulated and encoded/decoded.

12
Cognitive Radio - Physical Architecture
(cont’d)

 The novel characteristic of CR transceiver is a

wideband sensing capability of the RF front-end.
 RF hardware should be capable of tuning to any part of a
large range of frequency spectrum.

13
Cognitive Radio – Key Challenge of
Physical Architecture (cont’d)
 Limitations
 The wideband RF antenna receives signals from various
transmitters operating at different power levels, bandwidths,
and locations.
 The RF front-end should have the capability to detect a
weak signal in a large dynamic range.
 The capability requires a multi-GHz speed A/D converter
with high resolution, which might be infeasible.
 Solutions
 Reduction of dynamic range of the signal, e.g., tunable
notch filters
 Multiple antennas such that signal filtering is performed in
the spatial domain rather than frequency domain, e.g.,
beamforming.

14
Cognitive Radio – Cognitive Capability

 Cognitive Cycle

15
Cognitive Radio – Reconfigurability

 Reconfigurability
 is the capability of adjusting operating parameters for the
transmission on the fly without any modifications on the
hardware components.
 Operating frequency
 Modulation
 Reconfigure the modulation scheme adaptive to the users
requirements and channel conditions.
 Transmission power
 If higher power operation is not necessary, the CR reduces the
transmitter power to a lower level to allow more users to share the
spectrum and to decrease the interference
 Communication technology

16
The xG Network Architecture [5]

17
The xG Network Architecture
- Primary Network
 An existing network infrastructure is generally
referred to as the primary network, which has
an exclusive right to a certain spectrum band.
 Primary user
 Primary base-station
 The primary base-station does not have any xG
capability for sharing spectrum with xG users.
 The primary base-station may be requested to have
both legacy and xG protocols for the primary network
access of xG users.

18
The xG Network Architecture
- xG Network
 xG network (cognitive radio network, Dynamic
Spectrum Access network, secondary network,
unlicensed network) does not have license to
operate in a desired band.
 The spectrum access is allowed only in an opportunistic
manner.
 xG users
 xG base-station
 provides single hop connection to xG users without spectrum
access license
 Spectrum broker
 can be connected to each network and can serve as a
spectrum information manager to enable coexistence of
multiple xG networks

19
The xG Network Arch.
- Access Types
 xG network access
 xG users can access their own xG base-station
both on licensed and unlicensed spectrum bands.
 xG ad hoc access
 xG users can communicate with other xG users
through ad hoc connection on both licensed and
unlicensed spectrum bands.
 Primary network access
 The xG users can also access the primary base-
station through the licensed band.

20
xG Network on Licensed Band

 xG networks is deployed to exploit the

spectrum holes through cognitive
communication techniques.

21
xG Network on Licensed Band (cont’d)

 The challenges is due to the existence of the

primary users.
 the detection of the presence of primary users
 the interference avoidance with primary users
 The channel capacity if the spectrum holes depends on
the interference at the nearby primary users.
 spectrum handoff
 If primary users appear in the spectrum band occupied
by xG users, xG users should vacate the current
spectrum band and move to the new available spectrum
immediately.

22
xG Network on Unlicensed Band

 Open spectrum policy has caused an impressive

variety of important technologies and innovative
uses.
 However, due to the interference among multiple
heterogeneous network, the spectrum efficiency of ISM
band is decreasing.
 xG networks can be designed for operation on
unlicensed bands such that the efficiency is
improved in this portion of spectrum.
 Intelligent spectrum sharing algorithm can improve the
efficiency of spectrum usage and support high QoS.

23
xG Network on Unlicensed Band (cont’d)

 xG uses focus on detecting the transmissions of other xG

users.
 All xG users have the same right to access the spectrum
 No spectrum handoff is triggered by the appearance of other
primary users
 If multiple xG network operators reside in the same
unlicensed band, fair spectrum sharing among these networks
is also required.

24
xG Network Applications

 Leased network
 The primary network can provide a leased network by
 allowing opportunistic access to its licensed spectrum with the
agreement with a third party without sacrificing the service
quality of the primary users.
 e.g., Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)
 Cognitive mesh network
 xG networks have the ability to add temporary or
permanent spectrum to the infrastructure links used for
relaying in case of high traffic load.
 Emergency network
 Military network

25
The xG Network Architecture - Examples

 Spectrum Pooling [61][62]

 CORVUS (Cognitive Radio approach for usage of Virtual
Unlicensed Spectrum) [8][14]
 exploit unoccupied licensed bands

26
The xG Network Architecture –
Examples (cont’d)
 IEEE 802.22 (Wireless Regional Area Networks)
 The first worldwide standard based on the cognitive radio
technology.
 Focus on constructing fixed point-to-multipoint WRAN that
will utilize UHF/VHF TV bands between 54 and 862 MHz.
 Specific TV channels as well as guard bands will be used
for communication in IEEE 802.22.

27
The xG Network Architecture –
Examples (cont’d)
 DIMSUMnet (Dynamic Intelligent Management of Spectrum
for Ubiquitous Mobile-access network) [10][35]
 argued a case for coordinated, real-time dynamic spectrum
access instead of opportunistic, uncoordinated methods common
in ad-hoc military applications.
 Recent work focuses on the spectrum pricing and allocation
functions for spectrum brokers. [11]

28
The xG Network Architecture –
Examples (cont’d)
 DRiVE project (Dynamic Radio for IP Services in
Vehicular Environments) [75]
 focus on dynamic spectrum allocation in heterogeneous
network (broadcast technologies and cellular system) by
assuming a common coordinated channel(CCC).

 OverDRiVE (Spectrum Efficient Uni- and Multicast

Services Over Dynamic Radio Networks in Vehicular
Environments) [26]
 aims at UMTS enhancements and coordination of existing
ratio networks into a hybrid network to ensure spectrum
efficient provision of mobile multimedia service.

29
The xG Network Architecture –
Examples (cont’d)
 Nautilus [73][74][15]
 is designed to emphasize distributed coordination
enabled spectrum sharing, without relying on
centralized control.

 OCRA network (OFDM-based Cognitive

Radio) [5]
 introduces multi-spectrum transport techniques to
exploit the available but non-contiguous wireless
spectrum for high communications.

30
Spectrum Sensing

 The most efficient way to detect spectrum holes is

 to detect the primary users that are receiving data within
the communication range of an xG user.
 In reality, however, it is difficult for a cognitive radio
to have a direct measurement of a channel between
a primary receiver and a transmitter.

 Thus, the most recent work focuses on primary

transmitter detection based on local observations of
xG users.

31
Classification of Spectrum Sensing
Techniques

 Transmitter detection approach

 is based on the detection of the weak signal from a primary
transmitter through the local observations of xG users.
the AWGN
 Basic hypothesis

transmitted signal of the primary users

the amplitude gain of the channel 32
Transmitter Detection Problem

 Transmitter detection problem

 Receiver uncertainty (a)
 Shadowing uncertainty (b)

33
 Cooperated Spectrum Sensing

 Cooperated spectrum sensing methods where

information from multiple xG users are incorporated
for primary user detection.
 allow to mitigate the multi-path fading and shadowing
effects, which improves the detection probability in a
heavily shadowed environment.

The primary receiver uncertainty problem caused by the lack of the primary receiver
location knowledge is still unsolved. 34
Interference-based Detection

 The interference temperature model [21] shows the signal of a

radio station designed to operate in a range at which the
received power approaches the level of the noise floor.

35
Spectrum Sensing Challenges

 Interference temperature measurement

 There exists no practical way for a CR to measure or
estimate the interference temperature at nearby primary
receivers.
 Primary receivers are usually passive devices
 Spectrum sensing in multi-user networks
 Current interference model do not consider the effect of
multiple xG users
 Detection capability
 Detect the primary users in a very short time.

36
Spectrum Management

 Since xG networks should decide on the best

spectrum band to meet the QoS requirements over
all spectrum bands,
 new spectrum management functions are required for xG
networks
 considering the dynamic spectrum characteristics

 Functions of spectrum management

 Spectrum sensing
 Spectrum analysis
 Spectrum decision

37
Spectrum Analysis

 The available spectrum holes show different

characteristics which vary over time.
 Spectrum analysis enables the characterization of
different spectrum bands,
 which can be exploited to get the spectrum band
appropriate to the user requirements.
 In order to describe the dynamic nature of xG
networks, each spectrum hole should be
characterized considering
 not only time-varying radio environment and
 but also the primary user activity and the spectrum band
information.

38
Spectrum Analysis – Parameters

 Interference
 From the amount of the interference at the primary receiver,
the permission power of an xG user can be derived, which
is used for the estimation of the channel capacity
 Path loss
 The path loss increases as the operating frequency
increases.
 Therefore, if the transmission power of an xG user remains
the same, the its transmission range decreases at higher
frequencies.
 Wireless link errors
 Depending on the modulation scheme and the interference
level of the spectrum band

39
Spectrum Analysis – Parameters (cont’d)

 Link layer delay

 To address different path loss, wireless link error, and
interference, different types of link layer protocols are
required at different spectrum bands.
 results in different link layer packet transmission delay
 Holding time
 refers to the expected time duration that the xG user can
occupy a licensed band before getting interrupted.
 The longer the holding time, the better the quality would be.

40
Spectrum Analysis – Capacity Estimation

 Usually SNR at the receiver has been used for the capacity
estimation.
 Since SNR considers only local observations of xG users, it is not
enough to avoid interference at the primary users.

 Spectrum characterization is focus on the capacity estimation

based on the interference at the licensed receivers.
 Interference temperature model
 A complete analysis and modeling of spectrum in xG
networks is yet to be developed.

41
Spectrum Decision

 Once all available spectrum bands are

characterized,
 appropriate operating spectrum band should be
selected for the current transmission considering
 the QoS requirements and
 the spectrum characteristics

42
Spectrum Management Challenges

 Decision model
 how to combine these spectrum characterization
parameters for the spectrum decision model

 Multiple spectrum band decision

 The multi-spectrum transmission shows less quality
degradation during the spectrum handoff.
 Transmission in multiple spectrum bands allows lower
power to be used in each spectrum band.
 As a result, less interference with primary users is achieved.
 how to determine the number of spectrum bands and how
to select the set of appropriate bands

43
Spectrum Management Challenges
(cont’d)

 Cooperation with reconfiguration

 The CR technology enables the transmission
parameters of a radio to be reconfigured for optimal
operation in a certain spectrum band.
 For example, if SNR is fixed, the bet error rate can be
adjusted to maintain the channel capacity by
exploiting adaptive modulation techniques.

44
Spectrum Management Challenges
(cont’d)

 Spectrum decision over heterogeneous

spectrum bands
 In licensed bands
 Consider the activities of primary users in spectrum analysis
and decision in order not to influence the primary users
transmission.
 In unlicensed bands
 All the xG users have the same access rights, sophisticated
spectrum sharing techniques are necessary.

45
Spectrum Mobility

 xG networks target to use the spectrum in a

dynamic manner by allowing CR to operate in the
best available frequency band.

 Spectrum mobility is defined as the process when

an xG users changes its frequency of operation.
 Spectrum mobility arises when current channel conditions
become worse or a primary user appears.

46
Spectrum Mobility (cont’d)

 Each time an xG user changes its frequency of

operation, the network protocols are going to shift
from one mode of operation to another.
 The purpose of spectrum mobility management in
xG networks is to
 make sure that such transitions are made smoothly and as
soon as possible
 The applications running on an xG users perceive minimum
performance degradation during a spectrum handoff.

47
Spectrum Mobility Challenges

 Algorithms are required to decide the best available

spectrum based on the channel characteristics of
the available spectrum and the QoS requirements of
the applications.
 Design new mobility and connection management
approaches to reduce delay and loss during
spectrum handoff.
 Novel algorithms are required to ensure that
applications do not suffer from severe performance
degradation during the transitions.

48
Spectrum Mobility Challenges (cont’d)

 Inter-cell handoff and vertical handoff

 Spectrum mobility in time domain
 The available channels change over time,
enabling QoS in this environment is challenging.
 Spectrum mobility in space
 The available bands also changes as a user
moves from one place to another.
 Continuous allocation of spectrum is a major
challenge.

49
Spectrum Sharing

 Spectrum sharing can be regarded to be

similar to generic medium access control
(MAC) problems in the existing systems.

 The coexistence with licensed users and the

wide range of available spectrum are two of
the main reasons for the unique challenges.

50
Spectrum Sharing Process

 Spectrum sensing
 Spectrum allocation
 The allocation not only depends on spectrum availability,
but it is also determined based on internal (and possible
external) policies.
 Spectrum access
 The access should be coordinated in order to prevent
multiple users colliding in overlapping portions of the
spectrum.
 Transmitter-receiver handshake
 Spectrum mobility

51
Classification of Spectrum Sharing

overlay underlay

52
Inter-network and Intra-network
Spectrum Sharing

53
Inter-network Spectrum Sharing
 Centralized approaches
 Common Spectrum Coordination Channel (CSCC) etiquette
protocol [33]
 for coexistence of IEEE 802.11b and 802.16a
 Spectrum policy server [32]
 Each operator bids for the spectrum indicating the cost it will pay for
the duration of the usage.
 The SPS then allocates the spectrum by maximizing its profit from
these bids
 Distributed approaches
 Distributed QoS based Dynamic Channel Reservation (D-QDCR)
[43]
 A base station of a WISP competes with its interfere BSs according
to the QoS requirements of its users to allocate a portion of the
spectrum.

54
Intra-network Spectrum Sharing

 Cooperative approaches
 Local bargaining (LB) [15]
 to ensure a minimum spectrum allocation to each users and
hence focuses on fairness of users
 Dynamic open spectrum sharing MAC (DOSS-MAC)[40]
 When a node is using a specific data channel for
communication, both the transmitter and the receiver send a
busy tone signal through the associated busy tone channel.
 ……
 Non-cooperative approaches
 Device centric spectrum management (DCSM) [73]
 The communication overhead is minimized by providing five
different system rules for spectrum allocation.

55
Spectrum Sharing Challenges

 Common control channel

 CCC facilitates many spectrum sharing
functionalities
 Transmitter receiver handshake
 Communication with a central entity
 Sensing information exchange
 A fixed CCC is infeasible in xG networks
 When a primary user chooses a channel, this channel
has to be vacated without interfering.

56
Spectrum Sharing Challenges (cont’d)

 Dynamic radio range

 Radio range changes with operating frequency due to
attenuation variation.
 When a large portion of the wireless spectrum is
considered, the neighbors of a node may change as the
operating frequency changes.
 Control channels
 in the lower portions of the spectrum where the transmission
range will be higher
 Data channels
 in the higher portions of the spectrum where a localized
operation can be utilized with minimized interference

57
Spectrum Sharing Challenges (cont’d)

 Spectrum unit  three-dimensional

 Time dimensional resource-space
 The time required to
transfer information
 Rate dimensional
 The data rate of the
network
 Multi-code or Multi-
channel
 Power/code dimensional
 The energy consumed
for transmitting
information throughput
the network

58
Upper Layer Issues - Routing

 Common control channel

 Intermittent connectivity
 In xG networks, the reachable neighbors of a node may
change rapidly.
 The available spectrum may change or vanish as licensed
users exploit the networks
 Once a node selects a channel for communication, it is no
longer reachable through other channels
 The connectivity concept used for wireless networks
depends on the spectrum.
 Re-routing
 Queue Management

59
Upper Layer Issues – Transport Layer
 The performance of TCP depends on the packet loss probability
and round trip time.
 Wireless errors and the packet loss probability depends on
 the access technology

 the frequency in use

 interference level

 the available bandwidth

 RTT of a TCP connection depends on

 the frequency of operation
 packet retransmissions due to higher frame error rate at particular
frequency bands
 spectrum handoff latency
 the interference level
 the medium access control protocol

60
Cross-layer Designs

61
Conclusions

 xG networks are being developed to solve current

wireless network problems resulting from
 the limited available spectrum
 the inefficiency in the spectrum usage
 xG networks, equipped with the intrinsic capabilities
of the cognitive radio, will provide an ultimate
spectrum-aware communication paradigm in
wireless communications.

62
Resources
 Published Special Issues
 Mobile Networks and Applications, Aug. 2006
 IEEE Communications Magazine,
 May 2007, Cognitive Radios for Dynamic Spectrum Access
 Apr. 2008, Cognitive Radio Communications and Networks
 IEEE Wireless Communications
 Aug. 2007, Cognitive Wireless Networks
 IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
 Jan. 2008, Cognitive Radio: Theory and Application
 Major Conferences
 IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks
(DySPAN)
 2005,2007, 2008
 International Conference on Cognitive Radio Oriented Wireless Networks
and Communications (CROWNCOM)
 2006, 2007, 2008

63