Cognitive MAC Protocol With Transmission Tax: Dynamically Adjusting Sensing and Data Performance

Efficient operation of a Cognitive Personal Area Network (CPAN) may be achieved if each data transmission is taxed by requiring the transmitting node to participate in cooperative sensing for a prescribed time period. The authors investigate the data transmission performance of this approach as well as its sensing accuracy. Through adaptive management of both the sensing process and data transmission, they show that the two facets of performance may be adjusted almost independently. Opportunistic or cognitive Spectrum Access (OSA) is a novel communications paradigm that aims to improve the usage of available spectrum in many applications.