In traditional cognitive radio networks, secondary users (SUs) typically access the spectrum of primary users (PUs) by a two-stage "listen-before-talk" (LBT) protocol, i.e., SUs sense the spectrum holes in the first stage before transmitting in the second. However, there exist two major problems: 1) transmission time reduction due to sensing, and 2) sensing accuracy impairment due to data transmission. In this paper, we propose a "listen-and-talk" (LAT) protocol with the help of full-duplex (FD) technique that allows SUs to simultaneously sense and access the vacant spectrum. Spectrum utilization performance is carefully analyzed, with the closed-form spectrum waste ratio and collision ratio with the PU provided. Also, regarding the secondary throughput, we report the existence of a tradeoff between the secondary transmit power and throughput. Based on the power-throughput tradeoff, we derive the analytical local optimal transmit power for SUs to achieve both high throughput and satisfying sensing accuracy. Numerical results are given to verify the proposed protocol and the theoretical results.
This paper studies the cooperation between a primary system and a cognitive system in a cellular network where the cognitive base station (CBS) relays the primary signal using amplify-and-forward or decode-and-forward protocols, and in return it can transmit its own cognitive signal. While the commonly used half-duplex (HD) assumption may render the cooperation less efficient due to the two orthogonal channel phases employed, we propose that the CBS can work in a full-duplex (FD) mode to improve the system rate region. The problem of interest is to find the achievable primary-cognitive rate region by studying the cognitive rate maximization problem. For both modes, we explicitly consider the CBS transmit imperfections, which lead to the residual self-interference associated with the FD operation mode. We propose closed-form solutions or efficient algorithms to solve the problem when the related residual interference power is non-scalable or scalable with the transmit power. Furthermore, we propose a simple hybrid scheme to select the HD or FD mode based on zero-forcing criterion, and provide insights on the impact of system parameters. Numerical results illustrate significant performance improvement by using the FD mode and the hybrid scheme.