Hybrid Spectrum Handoff Scheme of Imperfect Sensing in Cognitive Radio Networks

Background: In the actual cognitive radio network, there exist the imperfect sensing such as false alarm and missed detection which can lead to the inaccurate spectrum handoff and cause more uncertain problems. Meanwhile, the predetermined target channel has high risk of being unavailable in the proactive-decision spectrum handoff scheme. Objective: To solve the problem that the state of the predetermined target channel is updated in the proactive-decision spectrum handoff scheme, we present a novel hybrid spectrum handoff scheme based on Preemptive Resume Priority (PRP) M/G/m queuing network model in this paper. Methods: The proposed scheme combines the advantages of proactive-decision spectrum handoff and reactive-decision spectrum handoff, and performs the spectrum sensing during the waiting time of the cognitive user on the target channel. On this basis, we consider the influence of multiple cognitive users, multiple authorization channels, multiple spectrum handoffs and other factors on the spectrum handoff delay of cognitive user. Then, the detailed analysis and derivations of cognitive user’s extended data delivery time are conducted. Furthermore, the effect of imperfect spectrum sensing on the spectrum handoff performance of cognitive users is discussed. Results: Compared with traditional spectrum handoff schemes, numerical results show that the extended data delivery time of the proposed scheme is smaller, and the performance of spectrum handoff is further improved. In addition, the performance of the proposed scheme is less affected by the probability of false alarm and missed detection with frequent channel states variations. Simulation results are given to validate the analytical results. Conclusion: The hybrid spectrum handoff scheme provide better performance on the spectrum sharing between primary users and cognitive users in cognitive radio network under imperfect sensing condition.