A Framework for Cognitive WiMAX With Frequency Agility

Alexe E. Leu, Brian L. Mark, Mark A. McHenry

Abstract: Cognitive radios have the ability to sense the radio spectrum environment and to switch dynamically to available frequency ranges. Mobile WiMAX is an emerging wireless networking standard that could potentially benefit from cognitive radio technology. We develop a framework for applying cognitive radio technology to mobile WiMAX networks to increase capacity and simplify network operations. In the proposed cognitive WiMAX architecture, base stations are equipped with sensitive detectors and assign channels to subscriber stations dynamically based on spectrum availability. Power control is employed to increase frequency reuse in conjunction with spectrum sensing. Using computer simulation, we evaluate the performance of “cognitive channel assignment” relative to conventional dynamic channel assignment. Our numerical results show that cognitive radios can substantially increase the capacity of emerging WiMAX networks by exploiting inherent spectrum hole opportunities. The key performance parameters determining the achievable capacity of cognitive WiMAX networks are the detection and interference range, which depend in turn on characteristics of the radio propagation environment.