Finite Block-Length Analysis of Spectrum Sharing Networks Using Rate Adaptation

This paper studies the throughput of spectrum sharing networks utilizing rate adaptation. We use some recent results on the achievable rates of finite block-length codes to analyze the secondary user (SU) throughput with a constraint on the primary user (PU) codeword drop probability. With codewords of finite length, we derive closed-form expressions for the SU activation probability and throughput. The results are obtained in different scenarios with perfect or no channel state information at the SU transmitter. As demonstrated numerically and analytically, using finite-length codewords and rate adaptation, there is considerable potential for the data transmission of unlicensed secondary users under different quality-of-service requirements of the licensed primary users.