Spectrum Handoff in Cognitive Radio Network

Abstract: Rapid development of wireless networking technology has raised a large demand for spectrum band. Cognitive radio networks (CRNs) offer a solution for spectrum scarcity problem by means of dynamic spectrum access. Cognitive radio technology is an emerging technology which would enable a set of secondary users (SU) to opportunistically use the spectrum allocated to a primary user (PU) and has potential to serve as a solution to spectrum inefficiency and spectrum shortage problems. However, SUs face number of challenges based on the fluctuating nature of the available spectrum. When PU arrives on a specific frequency band, any SU occupying this band should free the channel for PUs which is referred as Spectrum handoff. It is an important but unexplored event in cognitive radio network. This paper is a brief overview on the reason, mechanism, challenges and their solutions in spectrum handoff.

Keywords: cognitive radio, spectrum handoff, spectrum mobility queuing theory, PRP M/G/1 queueing model.