Self-organization approaches for optimization in cognitive radio networks

Cognitive radio (CR) is regarded as a promising technology for providing a high spectral efficiency to mobile users by using heterogeneous wireless network architectures and dynamic spectrum access techniques. However, cognitive radio networks (CRNs) may also impose some challenges due to the ever increasing complexity of network architecture, the increasing complexity with configuration and management of large-scale networks, fluctuating nature of the available spectrum, diverse Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements of various applications, and the intensifying difficulties of centralized control, etc. Spectrum management functions with self-organization features can be used to address these challenges and realize this new network paradigm. In this paper, fundamentals of CR, including spectrum sensing, spectrum management, spectrum mobility and spectrum sharing, have been surveyed, with their paradigms of self-organization being emphasized. Variant aspects of self-organization paradigms in CRNs, including critical functionalities of Media Access Control (MAC)- and network-layer operations, are surveyed and compared. Furthermore, new directions and open problems in CRNs are also identified in this survey.