Efficient dynamic spectrum sharing through rate compensation and spectrum handoff

In this work, we propose a heuristic for dynamic spectrum sharing in cognitive radio networks. The concept of rate compensation is introduced so that cognitive radio users are able to achieve their rate requirement by performing adequately spectrum handoffs. Indeed, performing spectrum handoff can increase the achieved rate obtained by moving from unavailable channels to available ones. However, handoffs should also be reduced to decrease handoff delays and access contention in the network which can in turn impact the achieved rate.