Game Theory for Cognitive Radio Networks: An Overview

Cognitive radio technology, a revolutionary communication paradigm that can utilize the existing wireless spectrum resources more efficiently, has been receiving a growing attention in recent years. As network users need to adapt their operating parameters to the dynamic environment, who may pursue different goals, traditional spectrum sharing approaches based on a fully cooperative, static, and centralized network environment are no longer applicable. Instead, game theory has been recognized as an important tool in studying, modeling, and analyzing the cognitive interaction process. In this paper, the authors introduce the most fundamental concepts of game theory, and explain in detail how these concepts can be leveraged in designing spectrum sharing protocols, with an emphasis on state-of-the-art research contributions in cognitive radio networking.