On the probabilistic model for primary and secondary user activity for OFDMA-based cognitive radio systems: Spectrum occupancy and system throughput perspectives

Cognitive radio systems are a promising solution to the spectrum scarcity problem but accurate modeling of both primary and secondary user activity, spectrum utilization, and system throughput are vital to achieve good performance in such systems. In this paper, we consider a set of primary users that are distributed in space based on a Poisson point process and demand for the available spectrum. We assess the effect of these demands on primary user activity, spectrum occupancy, and total system throughput under various subcarrier-request distributions and fading environments. The asymptotic mean number of active primary users and occupied subcarriers are analytically derived and evaluated further considering the primary network traffic and the average probability of miss-detection of an occupied subcarrier by a single sensing secondary user. It is seen that the average probability of miss-detection is a function of system traffic and the subcarrier-request distribution of primary users and that for extreme primary user traffic, the applied subcarrier-request distribution and total number of provided subcarriers cannot improve further the asymptotic sensing accuracy of the secondary user. Finally, the primary network and the secondary user throughputs in the presence of mutual interference due to imperfect detection of secondary users are investigated and their asymptotic values for large primary network traffic, primary user transmit power, and secondary user transmit power are analytically derived. The results are critically investigated, formulated as theorems and compared with simulations. It is observed that analytical and simulation results are in perfect agreement. It is shown that increasing the primary network transmit power benefits both the primary network and the secondary user throughputs.