System times and channel availability analyses in multi-channel cognitive radio networks

Channel accessibility by a secondary user (SU) in cognitive radio networks (CRNs) depends on the availability of the spectrum based on primary user and other SU activities. A new SU request may be blocked and an ongoing SU service may also be discarded if no sufficient spectrum is available. So far, little work has been done to analyze the reliability and availability aspects of CRNs from the perspective of the dependability theory. In this paper, we introduce the concept of availability for spectrum access in multi-channel CRNs, which is defined as the fraction of time that a CRN can allocate at least the minimum number of required channels for a new SU request. Through a proposed continuous-time discrete-state Markov model, we analyze the performance of CRN channel access schemes in terms of a few reliability-relevant metrics such as mean channel available time and mean time to first channel unavailability. Furthermore numerical results are also presented in this paper and the correctness of the derived theoretical models are verified through simulations.