A game theory approach for self-coexistence analysis among IEEE 802.22 networks

The cognitive radio (CR) based IEEE 802.22 is a standard for wireless regional area networks (WRANs), which is allowed to utilize TV bands when no interference is present to incumbents (i.e. TV receivers and microphones). Compared to other existing networks, it has larger coverage range and provides broadband access in rural and remote areas with performance comparable to DSL and cable modems. It is a promising networks for future wireless communications. When multiple networks deployed by different wireless service providers overlay each other in the same area, they would have to compete to access available TV channels. When more than one WRANs accesses the same channel, the interference occurs. This will cause some given quality of service (QoS) requirements to be unsatisfied. Appropriate strategy such that finding an available channel with minimum cost is needed. In this paper, we formulate the problem as a noncooperative game and establish the Nash equilibrium. Both theoretical and experimental analysis are conducted and demonstrate that the proposed strategy can find an available channel with smaller cost than that of other strategies.