Throughput optimization using simultaneous sensing and transmission in energy harvesting cognitive radio networks

Abstract

A three‐dimensional continuous‐time Markov model is proposed for an energy harvesting cognitive radio system, where each secondary user (SU) harvests energy from the ambient environment and attempts to transmit data packets on spectrum holes in an infinite queuing buffer. Unlike most previous works, the SU can perform spectrum sensing, data transmission, and energy harvesting simultaneously. We determine active probability of the SU transmitter, where the average energy consumption for both spectrum sensing and data transmission should not exceed the amount of harvested energy. Then, we formulate achievable throughput of secondary network as a convex optimization problem under average transmit and interference energy constraints. The optimal pair of controlled energy harvesting rate and data packet rate is derived for proposed model. Results indicate that no trade‐off is available among harvesting, sensing/receiving, and transmitting. The SU capability for self‐interference cancelation affects the maximum throughput. We develop this work under hybrid channels including overlay and underlay cases and propose a hybrid solution to achieve the maximum throughput. Simulation results verify that our proposed strategy outperforms the efficiency of the secondary network compared to the previous works.