On the Gaussian Interference Channel with Half-Duplex Causal Cognition

This paper studies the two-user Gaussian interference channel with half-duplex causal cognition. This channel model consists of two source-destination pairs sharing a common wireless channel. One of the sources, referred to as the cognitive, overhears the other source, referred to as the primary, through a noisy link and can therefore assist in sending the primary's data. Due to practical constraints, the cognitive source is assumed to work in half-duplex mode, that is, it cannot simultaneously transmit and receive. This model is more relevant for practical cognitive radio systems than the classical information theoretic cognitive channel model, where the cognitive source is assumed to have a non-causal knowledge of the primary's message. Different network topologies are considered, corresponding to different interference scenarios: (i) the interference-symmetric scenario, where both destinations are in the coverage area of the two sources and hence experience interference, and (ii) the interference-asymmetric scenario, where one destination does not suffer from interference. For each topology the sum-rate performance is studied by first deriving the generalized Degrees of Freedom (gDoF), or "sum-capacity pre-log" in the high-SNR regime, and then showing relatively simple coding schemes that achieve a sum-rate upper bound to within a constant number of bits for any SNR. Finally, the gDoF of the channel is compared to that of the non-cooperative interference channel and to that of the non-causal cognitive channel to identify the parameter regimes where half-duplex causal cognition is useless in practice or attains its ideal ultimate limit, respectively.