Quality of Service Analysis for the Real-Time Secondary Users in Cognitive Radio Cellular Networks

Cognitive radio technology can improve the spectrum utilization in wireless networks by providing the capability for the secondary users to opportunistically use the frequency spectrum which is originally dedicated to the licensed users. In this paper the quality of service parameters for the real-time (RT) secondary users are analyzed in an overlay cognitive radio cellular network. RT packets are delay sensitive and can tolerate a limited amount of waiting time. Otherwise they will be useless and hence will be dropped. On the other hand, the availability of the frequency channels for SUs in cognitive radio networks (CRNs) depends on the activity of licensed users. Therefore, the support of RT services in CRNs requires elaborate considerations in various functionalities of the network. Here a practical cellular structure for the network is considered. Furthermore, a packet scheduling scheme is proposed and an analytical framework is developed for the performance analysis of RT secondary users. The effect of errors of spectrum sensing is also taken into account in the performed analysis. The analytical results are verified by simulations. The obtained results are very helpful for the support of RT traffic in cellular CRNs.