A Leasing Oriented MAC Protocol for High Spectrum Usage in Cognitive Radio Networks

Cognitive radio (CR) is an emerging technology in wireless access, aiming at vastly improving the way radio spectrum is utilized. Its basic idea is that a secondary user (unlicensed user) can be permitted to use licensed spectrum, provided that it does not interfere with any primary users (licensed users). CR technology enables the development of an intelligent and adaptive wireless communication system that is essentially aware of the radio frequency environment. In this paper, we have proposed a novel cognitive MAC protocol for cognitive radio networks under the property-rights model, in which, secondary users are divided into several non-overlapping groups, and each group uses the proposed auction algorithm to bid for leasing the required channels from the auctioneer appointed by primary users. To the best of our knowledge, this protocol is the first to maximize the utilization of spectrum resources while achieving revenue maximization for primary users. Simulations indicate that our proposed MAC protocol utilizes spectrum resources to the maximum, guarantees the fairness and dynamics of channels allocation among groups.