Probabilistic Resource Allocation for Opportunistic Spectrum Access

Opportunistic spectrum access (OSA) in cognitive radio (CR) networks significantly improves spectrum efficiency by allowing secondary usage of licensed spectrum. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic resource allocation approach to further exploit the flexibility of OSA. Based on the probabilities of channel availability obtained from spectrum sensing, the proposed approach optimizes channel and power allocation in a multi-channel environment. The given algorithm maximizes the overall utility of a CR network and ensures sufficient protection of licensed users from unacceptable interference, which also supports diverse quality-of-service requirements and enables a distributed implementation in multi-user networks. Both analytical and simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach as well as its advantage over conventional approaches that rely upon the hard decisions on channel availability.