Channel aggregation with guard-band in D-OFDM based CRNs: Modeling and performance evaluation

Channel aggregation (CA) techniques can offer flexible channel allocation and improve overall system performance in multi-channel cognitive radio networks (CRNs). Although many CA techniques have been proposed and studied, the impact of guard-band on CA for channel access has not been addressed in-depth. In this paper, we study the guard-band allocation mechanisms in discontinuous-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (D-OFDM) based CRNs, and investigate the impact of guard-band sharing on SU flows when CA is enabled. Continuous time Markov chain (CTMC) based models have been developed in order to investigate the stochastic behavior of PU and SU flows. Based on our mathematical analysis and simulation results, we observe that when guard-band is considered together with CA, the performance of the network varies according to different access schemes with distinct guard-band allocation mechanisms.