Analysis of the Power Amplifier Nonlinearity on the Power Allocation in Cognitive Radio Networks

The interference to the primary receiver (PR) is a critical issue in the resource allocation of cognitive radio (CR) networks. For instance, the nonlinearity of the power amplifier (PA) causes nonlinear interference to the PRs. This paper studies the power allocation in cognitive radio networks by considering the nonlinear effects of the PA on the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the secondary receiver (SR) and the adjacent channel interference (ACI) to the PRs. A nonlinear PA with limited dynamic range and a lower limit on the transmit power is assumed for the secondary transmitter (ST). To control the resulting ACI from the ST to the PRs, the PA needs to be turned off in some fading blocks. To investigate the throughput, an analytical expression for the probability of data transmission between the secondary users is derived as a function of the interference temperature limits of the PRs. All analyses are performed for both peak and average ACI power constraints. Through theoretical analysis and simulation studies, maximum achievable average SNR at the SR is investigated. Moreover, the throughput degradation is studied and it is observed that the average ACI power constraints result in the better performance than the peak ones.