CAREER: Mutual Benefit in Cognitive Radio Networks: A Coalitional Game Framework

认知无线电(CR)是一种革命性的无线通信模式，认知(次要)用户能够在不干扰传统许可(主要)用户的情况下观察、学习、优化和智能地适应频谱利用。然而，主要的技术挑战仍然存在：首先，为了避免干扰主用户，认知用户必须探索和感知频谱机会，以确定在数据传输之前是否有正在进行的活动。其次，一个关键问题是在时变的异质干扰环境中动态和机会主义的资源分配。第三，由于硬件的限制，每个认知用户应该分布式地选择候选信道进行感知或接入(即探索和利用)。为了克服这些挑战，采用了新的合作博弈论方法，强调通过简单的分布式解决方案进行互利管理。针对不同的问题和场景，本研究项目研究了三类合作博弈：规范联盟博弈、联盟形成博弈和联盟图博弈。这些方案和框架使用休斯顿大学新成立的无线网络、信号处理和安全实验室的硬件/软件平台来实施。通过会议/期刊出版物和实验室网站上的共享代码，世界各地的其他研究人员可以公开获得预期的研究结果。该教育计划的重点是一项外展计划，其中包括为高中年龄女性/少数族裔学生举办校园夏令营。它还吸引研究生和本科生从事研究。该项目的目标是通过博弈论的观点改善CR网络的性能，并提高妇女/少数群体在工程中的参与。

Cognitive radio (CR) is a revolutionary wireless communication paradigm in which cognitive (secondary) users are able to observe, learn, optimize, and intelligently adapt for spectrum utilization without interfering with traditionally licensed (primary) users. Yet, the major technical challenges remain: First, to avoid interfering with primary users, the cognitive users must explore and sense the spectrum opportunities to determine whether there are ongoing activities before data transmission. Second, a critical issue is dynamic and opportunistic resource allocation over time-varying heterogeneous interfering environments. Third, due to hardware limitation, each cognitive user should distributively choose the candidate channels to either sense or access (i.e., exploration and exploitation). To overcome these challenges, the novel cooperative game theory methods are employed that emphasizes mutual benefit management with simple distributed solutions. For different problems and scenarios, this research project investigates three categories of cooperative games: Canonical Coalition Game, Coalition Formation Game, and Coalition Graph Game. The schemes and frameworks are implemented using the hardware/software platform in the newly established Wireless Networking, Signal Processing, and Security Lab at the University of Houston. The expected research results are publicly available for other researchers worldwide through conference/journal publications and via shared codes on the lab website. The education plan focuses on an outreach program that integrates campus summer camps for high school-age women/minority students. It also engages graduate and undergraduate students in research. The goal of this project is to improve CR network performance through the game theoretic point of view and to enhance women/minority participation in engineering.