Representation of user satisfaction and fairness evaluation for user-centric dynamic spectrum access

User-centric dynamic spectrum access (DSA) in heterogeneous cognitive networks is an approach which allows cognitive radio (CR) to select and utilize radio resource according to user preferences. Defining a utility function corresponding to different preferences is required for the implementation and evaluation of a user-centric DSA scheme. This paper proposes a numerical representation method of common user preferences, and a numerical representation method of user satisfaction corresponding to multiple preferences. User satisfaction is defined based on the amount of received service and the perceived fairness to the service, it is used as a utility function to evaluate the affects of a user-centric DSA scheme to network load and to the fairness of resource sharing among CRs.