A Learning-Based Two-Stage Spectrum Sharing Strategy with Multiple Primary Transmit Power Levels

Abstract

Multi-parameter cognition in a cognitive radio network (CRN) provides a more thorough understanding of the radio environments, and could potentially lead to far more intelligent and efficient spectrum usage for a secondary user. In this paper, we investigate the multi-parameter cognition problem for a CRN where the primary transmitter (PT) radiates multiple transmit power levels, and propose a learning-based two-stage spectrum sharing strategy. We first propose a data-driven/machine learning based multi-level spectrum sensing scheme, including the spectrum learning (Stage I) and prediction (the first part in Stage II). This fully blind sensing scheme does not require any prior knowledge of the PT power characteristics. Then, based on a novel normalized power level alignment metric, we propose two prediction-transmission structures, namely periodic and non-periodic, for spectrum access (the second part in Stage II), which enable the secondary transmitter (ST) to closely follow the PT power level variation. The periodic structure features a fixed prediction interval, while the non-periodic one dynamically determines the interval with a proposed reinforcement learning algorithm to further improve the alignment metric. Finally, we extend the prediction-transmission structure to an online scenario, where the number of PT power levels might change as a consequence of PT adapting to the environment fluctuation or quality of service variation. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy in various scenarios.