Optimal primary-secondary user pairing and power allocation in cognitive cooperative multiple access channels

We develop jointly optimal power control and primary-secondary user partnering strategies for a cognitive cooperative multiple access channel with K primary and K secondary users. For each primary user, a cooperating secondary user is assigned. We consider both underlay and overlay modes for cognition/cooperation. In overlay mode, each secondary user decodes and relays part of its assigned primary user's message, and simultaneously transmits its own independent message, while ensuring the primary user achieves at least its single user capacity with power control. The encoding is based on channel adaptive block Markov superposition coding, where the powers assigned to primary and secondary user codewords are optimized so as to maximize either the system's sum rate, or the sum of secondary users' rates. In underlay mode, each secondary user employs independent signalling and allocates its power to maximize its own rate, without decreasing its assigned primary user's rate. The partnering problem for either mode is reduced to a maximum weighted matching (MWM) problem on a bipartite graph, and solved jointly optimally with the power allocation problem.