A stackelberg game spectrum sensing scheme in cooperative cognitive radio networks

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a collaborative spectrum sensing method based on Stackelberg game in order to improve the sensing performance of cognitive radio users, especially when they are operating under severe channel fading. In this scheme the users with acceptable received SNR are allowed to lead the network sensing process and share their observations with the ones experiencing weak channel conditions. By defining a new and more appropriate metric to evaluate the performance of the collaborative detection, the proposed method addresses the drawbacks of the conventional centralized or distributed spectrum sensing. Moreover, it does not require exchange of channel information among nodes and only minimum reporting of local observations is needed. The simulation results indicate that the proposed scheme improves the network sensing performance and reduces the overhead as compared to the noncooperative case and the conventional collaborative schemes, respectively.