Error-Correcting Codes for Dynamic Spectrum Allocation in Cognitive Radio Systems

Cognitive radio is an innovative technology proposed to increase spectrum usage by allowing dynamic allocation of the unused spectrum in changing environments. Cognitive users monitor the spectrum and are allowed to use it as long as it does not interfere with the primary users to whom it has been licensed. In this paper, we describe how some well established tools from the fields of error-correcting codes and information theory can be applied to the opportunistic spectrum access problem in cognitive radio. More precisely, we describe simple channel models based on information theoretic analysis and demonstrate that common error-correcting coding techniques, specifically low-density parity-check codes and insertion-deletion codes, can be used to solve this problem.