SINR Balancing Technique for Downlink Beamforming in Cognitive Radio Networks

We propose a novel signal to interference and noise (SINR) balancing technique for a downlink cognitive radio network (CRN) wherein multiple cognitive users (also referred to as secondary users (SUs)) coexist and share the licensed spectrum with the primary users (PUs) using the underlay approach. The proposed beamforming technique maximizes the worst SU SINR while ensuring that the interference leakage to PUs is below specific thresholds. Due to the additional interference constraints imposed by PUs, the principle of uplink-downlink duality used in the conventional downlink beamformer design cannot be directly applied anymore. To circumvent this problem, using an algebraic manipulation on the interference constraints, we propose a novel SINR balancing technique for CRNs based on uplink-downlink iterative design techniques. Simulation results illustrate the convergence and the optimality of the proposed beamformer design.