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ENERGY EFFICIENT CO-OPERATIVE SPECTRUM SENSING

WITH HYBRID HANDOFF STRATEGY IN COGNITIVE RADIO
NETWORK

By

Nazish Shafiq

Roll No: 33

MSc 3rd

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

UNIVERSITY OF KOTLI, AJ&K

 UNIVERSITY OF KOTLI, AZAD JAMMU AND KASHMIR,
PAKISTAN
Synopsis for MSC 3rd

TITLE: ENERGY EFFICIENT CO-OPERATIVE SPECTRUM SENSING

WITH HYBRID HANDOFF STRATEGY IN COGNITIVE RADIO
NETWORK

Name of Student: Nazish Shafiq

Roll No: 33
Date of Admission:

Date of Initiation:

Probable duration:

Supervisor: Dr. Ashafaq _______________

Signature

Chairman
Department of Physics

Dean Director
Faculty of Sciences Advanced Studies & Research

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 1. ABSTRACT:

The growing demand of wireless devices such as laptop, tablets, mobile phones etc

connected to the network so large amount of energy is consumed. In wireless network, cognitive

radio is the promising solution to solve the spectrum scarcity problem. Cognitive radio is

dynamic spectrum access mechanism. Devices demand the cognitive radio network to be more

energy efficient than the conventional network. Because of highly increasing demand in data

communication spectrum sensing and handoff are two major mechanisms in CRN. The main

objective of these two mechanisms is to avoid interference to PU, avoid collision and efficiently

identify spectrum holes for required throughput. In spectrum management spectrum mobility is

an important research area as other issues of sensing and sharing discussed in recent researches.

The existing researches on co-operative spectrum sensing and handoff mainly focus on sensing

efficiency and maximizing system throughput while ignoring the effect of energy efficiency and

delay in CRN. To make CRNs as an energy efficient system, spectrum mobility and sensing are

the two core factors. There are several researches focused on increasing the throughput by using

CSS and handoff strategies are proposed but in terms of energy efficiency is missed. In our

proposed framework for more energy efficient system CSS is combined with hybrid handoff

strategies.

2. INTRODUCTION

Increase number of wireless devices using network connection raised the spectrum

demand largely. Current wireless network is characterized by static spectrum allocation policy.

Where governmental agencies assigning wireless spectrum to license holder on long term basis

for large geographical area. These licensed holder uses only a few portion of spectrum leading to

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the underutilization of large amount of spectrum. To address this problem federal

communication commission(FCC) decided to assign the underutilized spectrum also called

spectrum holes to unlicensed user for the efficient use of spectrum holes. Dynamic spectrum

access techniques are proposed to address this problem. The DSA technique is cognitive radio

network. Cognitive radio was first authored by (J.Mitola,1999).Where unlicensed user share the

licensed band in an opportunistic manner. According to Jondral, CR is software defined radio

that change its transmitting parameters according to the environment and define the spectrum

holes and opportunistically communicates over spectrum holes. The unlicensed user are called

secondary user (SU) and licensed are called primary users (PU). Spectrum management in CR

discussed by Akyildiz (Akyildiz et al, 2006). Spectrum management consist of four steps.

Spectrum sensing, decision, sharing, mobility. Sensing is the first step in cognitive radio

network. Furthermore sensing is discussed by Yucek &Arslan in which Cognitive radio works by

using sensing algorithms and cognitive engine. Because secondary users are allowed to detect,

exploit and use underutilized spectral resources. CR is an intelligent radio uses that spectrum

sensing techniques to observe RF activities and is able to adapt particular situation. Different

detection techniques are used for sensing (match filter, energy detection, cyclostationary). CR

sense the available holes and report to the learning engine. There are three components of

cognitive engine. Knowledge base, learning base, reasoning base. Reasoning base executes the

actions and policies that are stored in knowledge base. Learning engine sense the available holes

through detection algorithm and transform the observed data to knowledge base. There are two

main objectives of sensing.CR user should not cause harmful interference to primary user (can

switch to another channel) and CR should efficiently identify and exploit the spectrum holes

(T.Yucek &Arslan, 2009). It is very difficult to detect PU’s when signal to noise ratio is very

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low. According to Ganesan (G.Ganesan, 2005) each SUs sense available channel by itself on his

local observation. Sometimes sensing range of SU’s is appears to be very small and mostly less

than its communication range. If the SU’s find idle spectrum portion for transmission, it may

cause interference to PUs inside its transmission range. Signal to noise ratio and shadowing

SU’s cannot detect the PU’s. Cooperative spectrum sensing is used to improve the detection

performance where multiple CR users sense the channel and report their sensing result to fusion

center that takes the final decision. But also cause overhead (delay, time, security, energy

consumption). According to the (Christian et al, 2012), When PU reclaims for the channel that is

used by SU. SU should vacate the channel and resume their transmission on another free

channel. Because PU always has high priority then SU. There are different handoff strategies

used for spectrum proactive where channel is already sensed before handoff event occur but in

reactive channel is sensed after handoff event occur. hybrid is combination of both these

strategies. The existing researches only focused on how to maximize throughput while ignoring

energy efficiency to make CRNs as an energy efficient system, spectrum mobility and sensing

are the two core factors. but in terms of energy efficiency is missed. There are several researches

focused on increasing the throughput by using CSS and handoff strategies but in terms of energy

efficiency is missed. In our proposed framework for more energy efficient CSS is combined with

hybrid handoff strategies. The remaining part of this document is as follows. Section 3 will

present the background studies and some of literature work. The research objectives and

methodology is described in the sections 4.

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3. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This section comprises of the background study of energy efficient CSS and handoff and

literature review of the research.

3.1 Spectrum sensing:

As the spectrum sensing and mobility are two core main factor of energy efficiency in

CRNs. The first function of CRN is spectrum sensing where the spectrum is monitored, identifies

the PUs, accessible spectrum opening for communication and then available spectrum can be

accessed by SUs. The spectrum sensing technique is generally defined as a binary hypothesis

test. If the PU is not transmitting on current channel then it is denoted by Ho and if primary user

is transmitting on current channel then it is denoted by H1. In this case SUs cannot interferes the

communication of PUs. Spectrum sensing techniques have two primary execution measurements.

When H1 is true while the SUs show as Ho is true then Probability of miss detection occurring

here. On the other hand probability of false alarm occur Ho is true and SUs sense it H1 is true.

So there is collision between PUs and SUs and both are utilitizing their energies for accessing of

channel (Dighman, Alouini, Simon, 2003). To avoid collision local spectrum sensing is

performed where the first steps sensing is performed by using different spectrum detection

techniques. Where in second step for detection of PU the output of every strategy is consolidated

using fuzzy logic technique. This technique improves the detection performance and decrease the

probability of false alarm ((Waleed ejaz et al, 2012). Different detection techniques are used for

sensing that uses algorithms and detectors for the detection of spectrums. SUs can perform

sensing individually but sometimes when they are out of range or due to shadowing they can

cause interference in PUs transmission due to miss detection and channels can be underutilized

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due to false alarm (Khaled Ben Letaief, 2009). To overcome this problem cooperative spectrum

sensing is proposed by (G.Ganesan, 2005).the main purpose of CSS is to upgrade the sensing

performance by combining the sensing result of all SUs and to make decision on the basis of

these sensing results that is more accurate than single user decision. Also improves the detection

performance at the cost of maximum overhead due to delay, security, time, energy efficiency etc.

3.2 Spectrum handoff:

When PUs reclaim for the channel that is temporarily occupied by SUs. SUs should vacate

the channel and resume its ongoing transmission on another vacant channel. SUs will search for

new spectrum that provides better QOS as well as there is no interference of PU. Spectrum

handoff consists of two types reactive and proactive. In reactive SUs starts sensing another

channel after handoff event occur. In proactive SUs select the target channel as future backup

before handoff event occur (Wang, Chun, and Li, 2008).

Reactive handoff is proposed by (Wang, Chung, & Li, 2012). In this technique SUs select the

target channel while communicating on current channel. SU start sensing another channel. SUs

perform parallel sensing for new channel and transmission on current channel. Guard bands are

used to remove collision between current communication channels. An expanded framework

throughput can be accomplished with this technique on account of collision avoidance, while the

handoff postpone and holding up time can likewise be expanded as the handoff step is taken after

the PU entry. A proactive handoff scheme is discussed by Lertsin, Adisorn, Naceur, and Serge

where short time backup channel is used. In this technique backup channel is chosen before the

PU entry. On the off chance that the present channel meets the transmission prerequisites QoS of

a SU. The new backup channel is discharged. In proposed technique the new backup channel is

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kept for short period of time where the backup channel is constantly kept with the present

channel. again the CR needs to handle various channels current communicating and new backup

channel, so it is a confounded arrangement( Lertsin, Adisorn, Naceur, and Serge,2010)

To reduce the handoff event again and again SUs should minimize the handoff probability.

Reactive and proactive handoff techniques are combined in hybrid technique. The main

advantage of hybrid handoff technique is that during handoff channel sensing is not performed

which increases the system performance while decreasing the handoff delay.

A lot of research literature has been found on sensing and handoff problems which are as

follows. These techniques were designed for improving energy efficiency, maximize throughput,

decrease delay in CRN. To reduce the handoff event again and again SUs should minimize the

handoff probability. Yin, Cong, Xuezhi & Lin proposed a technique in which both reactive and

proactive handoff techniques are combined in hybrid handoff by taking the sensing part of

proactive while handoff decision of reactive. SUs sense the target channel before transmission

and spectrum handoff is done after that event. The advantage of hybrid handoff technique is that

during handoff channel sensing is not performed which increases the system performance while

decreasing the handoff delay. But it is not discussed with respect to energy efficiency in (Yin,

Cong, Xuezhi Tan & Lin Ma, 2013).

Shokri developed a modification of this approach. The framework, which allows combining the

relationship between CSS and handoff technique to improve energy efficiency in network.

Sensing time is usually less in CRN but this increases the chances of mobility that is energy

consuming. On the other hand, if we increase the sensing time although it is time consuming but

it sense more accurate channel and hence decreasing the chance of mobility and less energy is

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consumed. In CSS when signal is weak SU continuously sense until false alarm and miss

detections are cleared. The main advantage is that number of channels is sensed but this requires

more sensing effort by SU. Maximizing throughput and energy efficiency by increasing sensing

time (Shokri, Hossein, Ioannis, Victoria Fodor, Carlo & Dimou, 2013)

To reduce the overhead by improving local spectrum sensing accuracy. Waleed proposed two

stage local cooperative spectrum sensing approach. In first stage, each CR perform sensing by

using primary detection techniques run in parallel. In second stage, the output from each

technique is combined at fuzzy logic center by using fuzzy logic decision to deduce the presence

or absence of PU. Main advantage of this approach is that overall detection performance is

increased and false alarms are decreased and it is better detection technique. But there is no

energy efficiency declared in (Waleed ejaz et al, 2012).

As the number of SU increases in CSS. More energy is consumed by locating time slots to each

SU and they report one by one to FC. Wang, Guo, Feng, Wang proposed a method of two stage

CSS to minimize the number of SU so that less energy is consumed. Divide the SU into two

groups. Each group consist of sensing, reporting channel, and transmission. first group sense the

PU and report its result to FC. If the sensed channel is found as idle then they start transmitting

data and if occupied the CSS is stopped. Now remaining group of SU report their result to the

FC.FC consequences the result of both stages and take final decision. By enhancing the SU of

both group the energy consumption is maximized that can be reduced by swarm optimization

algorithm. As in light of results assembled from two unique stages that might debase the

dependability of final decision (Wang, Guo, Feng, Feng, &Wang, 2013).

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SU cannot sense and access the channel at the same time. which leads to the fundamental

problem of determining the optimal sensing or transmission tradeoff. due to energy consumption

crises the handoff is not excessively used. Instead SU may sometimes choose to stop

transmission and wait on current channel for period of time. This increased delay and average

throughput. The existing schemes focus on either sensing or transmission tradeoff while

neglecting handoff or switch and transmission tradeoff while ignoring sensing errors. Wang,

Coon, Doufexi proposed a scheme jointly consider spectrum sensing or transmission tradeoff and

wait or switch tradeoff at the cost of minimizing energy due to sensing, data transmission,

handoff delay, while maximizing throughput ,sensing and energy efficiency. sensing time

increased it gives accurate decision of switching and false alarm probability is clear. Low energy

is consumed and throughput and delay is better and secondary user switch to its adjacent

channel. But not check the effect of CSS on energy throughput. (Wang, Wang, Coon, &Doufexi,

2012).

Another technique for improving energy efficiency is presented in (Zhao, Yu, Sun, Nallanathan,

2012). Time saving and energy efficient CSS scheme (TSEEOB) SS. Which consist of two

stages. At first stage (coarse spectrum sensing) is performed if no primary user exist then SU

starts transmission by which sensing time and energy are saved. Otherwise second stage fine

spectrum sensing will be performed to increase spectrum sensing accuracy. Only one bit decision

is sent to FC for minimum overhead. Each secondary user sends its sensing data to FC and FC

combine result from different SU for final decision. Depending on majority result about the

presence of PU. If final result is obtained DF is sent to each secondary user. If final decision is

not obtained nothing will be done. Despite the fact that this two stage sensing technique can

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effectively mitigate the sensing time it causes additional energy utilization in reporting stage as

well as it repeated twice which is not considered in this paper.

Sina (Sina Maleki, 2013) further improved the energy efficiency and proposed cluster based CSS

reduce control and transmission overhead. Cluster consists of small groups. Each group consist

of equal number of members. Each group has group head. Members report their result to group

head and cluster head coordinate the sensing process inside its cluster and links the other CR in

cluster with BS. Simulation shows that the propose algorithm can save energy consumption by

minimizing overhead and sensing accuracy. But its drawback is that the improvement attained by

proposed algorithm comes at the expense of increasing the computational requirement.

The existing research work in CSS gave better results for detecting PUs in cognitive radio

network (CRN) and remove interference maximize throughput as well as detecting the PUs but it

leads to consume more energy as well as system overhead. As increasing day by day energy

crises and also environmental standards it’s bolstering to energy efficiency to control especially

in wireless communication field.

According to Shokri (Shokri, Hossein, Ioannis, Victoria, Carlo, &Konstantinos, 2013) that fairness in

energy efficiency is achieved by increasing the sensing time so that less handoff events occur. In

same paper another issue is that energy efficiency is not discussed with respects to reactive and

proactive but according to previous literature the hybrid handoff technique is much better than

reactive and proactive so we also use hybrid handoff technique for efficient energy system. None

of the reported research literature analyses found on the energy efficient cooperative spectrum

sensing with respect to proactive and reactive handoff strategies.

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4. MATERIAL AND METHODS
In this section, firstly the problem is defined briefly and secondly the detailed research

methodology is described.

4.1 Problem Description

In this research, we propose CSS based Hybrid approach to maximize the energy efficiency

and throughput although minimizing the handoff latency and also channel underutilization.

By CSS the one SU will share information with all other SU’s about PU’s detection and

channel selection. On the basis of dynamic spectrum aggregation a new hybrid handoff

technique is proposed where SU’s can select backup channel as using the proactive part and

as traffic increases in network it will shift to reactive sensing. In proposed work, we also aim

to develop an algorithm to select the best available channel on the bases of expected lifetime

4.2 Research Objective and Methodology

The main objective of this research study will be to propose and present a best approach to

solve the energy efficiency problem in CSS.

We will use MATLAB in implementation for our proposed technique to simulate the energy

efficiency, minimize handoff, remove false alarm and misdetection probabilities and maximize

throughput. Simulations will be performed on the bases of our proposed technique using CSS

and hybrid handoff strategy. In simulation, first we will assume that there are N channels where

every channel has PUs and SUs are also available to occupy the free channel. Due to PU’s higher

priority they can occupy their temporarily free spectrum band, which may be at time used by

SU’s. So, if there is SU’s transmitting on current channel and detect the PU’s arrival then SU’s

has to perform handoff in order to vacate the channel without any interference. In our model CSS

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is main entity from where SU’s will start detecting the PU’s. If there is no PU then SU will

resume its communication on existing channel, at the same time sensing will be performed

parallel. In case PU is detected, SU will handoff from current channel by applying the hybrid

spectrum handoff strategy. At this point the channel selection is most important factor in our

proposed model. An algorithm is applied on all the sensed channels and the channel will be

selected on the basis of throughput, energy efficiency and previous usage if used by any SU. The

channel which gave better results in all these terms will be selected as next one for transmission

from available list, which is already sensed by CSS.

5.Literature Cited:

J. Mitola and G.Q. Maguire, August 1999. “Cognitive radio: Making software radios more

personal.

F. K. Jondral, 2005. “Software-Defined Radio Basic and Evolution to Cognitive Radio” EURASIP

J. Wireless Communication and Networking.

Srinivasa, Sudhir,and Syed Ali Jafar, (2007). "Cognitive radios for dynamic spectrum access-the

throughput potential of cognitive radio: A theoretical perspective." IEEE Communications

Magazine.

W. Webb, August 2012 “On using White Space Spectrum”, IEEE Communications

Magazine.August.

Christian et al. 2012 “Spectrum Mobility in Cognitive Radio Networks,” IEEE communication

magazine, Topics in Radio communication.

Akyildiz et al.2008 “A Survey of Spectrum Management in Cognitive Radio Networks,” IEEE

Communications Magazine.

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Akyildiz et al.2006 “Next Generation/Dynamic Spectrum Access/Cognitive Radio Wireless

Networks: A Survey,” Elsevier, Computer Networks.

M. Nekovee, 2010 “A survey of cognitive radio access on TV white spaces,” Hindawi International

Journal of Digital Multimedia Broadcasting.

B. Wang and K. J. Ray Liu, Feb 2011. “Advances in cognitive radio networks: a survey,” IEEE J.

Waleed Ejaz et al,2012.“Improved local spectrum sensing for cognitive radio networks”, EURASIP

Journal on Advances in Signal Processing.

G. Ganesan, Y.G. Li, November 2005 Cooperative spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks, in:

Proc. IEEE DySPAN.

Khaled Ben Letaief, and Wei Zhang, 2009 “Cooperative Communications for Cognitive Radio

Networks” Proceedings of the IEEE.

Ganesan, Ghurumuruhan, and Ye Li.2006. "Cooperative spectrum sensing in cognitive radio, part

II: multiuser networks." IEEE Transactions on wireless communications.

Noorshams, Nima, Mehdi Malboubi, and Ahmad Bahai. 2010."Centralized and decentralized

cooperative spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks: A novel approach." Signal Processing

Advances in Wireless Communications (SPAWC), IEEE Eleventh International Workshop on.

Wang, Li-Chun, and Chung-Wei Wang.2008 "Spectrum handoff for cognitive radio networks:

Reactive-sensing or proactive-sensing?" In 2008 IEEE International Performance, Computing and

Communications Conference.

Wang, Chung-Wei, and Li-Chun Wang.2012 “Analysis of Reactive Spectrum Handoff in

Cognitive Radio Networks,” IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communication.

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Lertsinsrubtavee, Adisorn, Naceur Malouch, and Serge Fdida.2010 "Spectrum handoff strategies

for multiple channels cognitive radio network," In Proceedings of the ACM CoNEXT Student

Workshop.

Yin, Cong, Xuezhi Tan, and Lin Ma.2013. "A hybrid handoff strategy based on dynamic spectrum

aggregation in cognitive radio system." In TENCON Spring Conference, IEEE.

Shokri-Ghadikolaei, Hossein, Ioannis Glaropoulos, Victoria Fodor, Carlo Fischione, and

Konstantinos Dimou, 2013 "Energy Efficient Spectrum Sensing and Handoff Strategies in

Cognitive Radio Network.

S. Wang, Y. Wang, J. Coon, and A. Doufexi, 2012 “Energy-efficient spectrum sensing and access

for cognitive radio networks,” IEEE.

Wang, G., Guo, C., Feng, S., Feng, C., &Wang, S. (2013, September). “A two stage cooperative

spectrum sensing method for energy efficiency improvement in cognitive radio”. Personal Indoor

and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC) IEEE 24th International Symposium.

Zhao, N., Yu, F.R., Sun, H., Nallanathan, A. (2012). “An energy-efficient cooperative spectrum

sensing scheme for cognitive radio networks” Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM),

IEEE.

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