Flexible Spectrum Access for Opportunistic Secondary Operation in Cognitive Radio Networks

In this letter a Discrete-Time Markov Chain (DTMC) framework is adopted to capture the effect of flexible spectrum channelization for the opportunistic access of secondary users (SUs) in a primary-secondary shared spectrum scenario. Two implementation alternatives are proposed: a fixed channelization scheme (FCS) and an adaptive channelization scheme (ACS). Moreover, service-type characterization of SUs is also addressed by defining time vs. volume based services. Results indicate the suitability of the ACS over the FCS.