Adaptive Power Allocation Schemes for Spectrum Sharing in Interference-Alignment-Based Cognitive Radio Networks

TLDR

Interference alignment can enhance spectrum sharing in cognitive radio networks, but at low SNR the sum rate and primary‑user QoS are often inadequate, and power allocation has been largely ignored. This study investigates power‑allocation strategies for IA‑based cognitive radio networks. The authors derive the minimal power required to meet the primary‑user QoS, then propose three closed‑form PA algorithms that maximize secondary‑user throughput, network energy efficiency, or secondary‑user requirements while guaranteeing the primary‑user QoS, analyze the primary‑user outage probability, and introduce a transmission‑mode adaptation scheme to further protect the primary user at low SNR. Simulations demonstrate that the adaptive PA algorithms substantially improve performance in IA‑based cognitive radio networks.

Abstract

Interference alignment (IA) is a promising technique for interference management and can be applied to spectrum sharing in cognitive radio (CR) networks. However, the sum rate may fall short of the theoretical maximum, particularly at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and the quality of service (QoS) of the primary user (PU) may not be guaranteed. In addition, power allocation (PA) in IA-based CR networks is largely ignored, which can further improve its performance. Thus, in this paper, PA in IA-based CR networks is studied. To guarantee the QoS requirement of the PU, its minimal transmitted power is derived. Then, we propose three PA algorithms to maximize the throughput of secondary users (SUs), the energy efficiency (EE) of the network, and the requirements of SUs, respectively, while guaranteeing the QoS of the PU. To reduce the complexity, the closed-form solutions of these algorithms are further studied in detail. The outage probability of the PU according to its rate threshold is also derived to analyze the performance of these algorithms. Moreover, we propose a transmission-mode adaptation scheme to further improve the PU's performance when its QoS requirement cannot be guaranteed at low SNR, and it can be easily combined with the proposed PA algorithms. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive PA algorithms for IA-based CR networks.