The proliferation of Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology and its reliance on the license-free Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands have rendered radio spectrum scarce. The IoT can nevertheless obtain great advantage from Cognitive Radio (CR) technology for efficient use of a spectrum, to be implemented in IEEE 802.11af-based primary networks. However, such networks require a geolocation database and a centralized architecture to communicate white space information on channels. On the other hand, in spectrum sensing, CR presents various challenges such as the Hidden Primary Terminal (HPT) problem. To this end, we focus on the most recently released standard, i.e., IEEE 802.11ah, in which IoT stations can first be classified into multiple groups to reduce collisions and then they can periodically access the channel. Therein, both services are similarly supported by a centralized server that requires signaling overhead to control the groups of stations. In addition, more regroupings are required over time due to the frequent variations in the number of participating stations, which leads to more overhead. In this paper, we propose a new Multiple Access Control (MAC) protocol for CR-based IEEE 802.11ah systems, called Restricted Access with Collision and Interference Resolution (RACIR). We introduce a decentralized group split algorithm that distributes the participating stations into multiple groups based on a probabilistic estimation in order to resolve collisions. Furthermore, we propose a decentralized channel access procedure that avoids the HPT problem and resolves interference with the incumbent receiver. We analyze the performance of our proposed MAC protocol in terms of normalized throughput, packet delay and energy consumption with the Markov model and analytic expressions. The results are quite promising, which makes the RACIR protocol a strong candidate for the CR-based IoT environment.

Auction theory has found vital application in cognitive radio to relieve spectrum scarcity by redistributing idle channels to those who value them most. However, countries have been slow to introduce spectrum auctions in the secondary market. This could be in part because a number of substantial conflicts could emerge for leasing the spectrum at the micro level. These representative conflicts include the lack of legislation, interference management, setting a reasonable price, etc. In addition, the heterogeneous nature of the spectrum precludes the true evaluation of non-identical channels. The information abstracted from the initial activity in terms of price paid for specific channels may not be a useful indicator for the valuation of another channel. Therefore, auction mechanisms to efficiently redistribute idle channels in the secondary market are of vital interest. In this paper, we first investigate such leading conflicts and then propose a novel Adaptive and Economically-Robust spectrum slot Group-selling scheme (AERG), for cognitive radio-based networks such as IoT, 5G and LTE-Advanced. This scheme enables group-selling behavior among the primary users to collectively sell their uplink slots that are individually not attractive to the buyers due to the auction overhead. AERG is based on two single-round sealed-bid reverse-auction mechanisms accomplished in three phases. In the first phase, participants adapt asks and bids to fairly evaluate uplink slots considering the dynamics of spectrum trading such as space and time. In the second phase, an inner-auction in each primary network is conducted to collect asks on group slots, and then, an outer-auction is held between primary and secondary networks. In the third phase, the winning primary network declares the winners of the inner-auction that can evenly share the revenue of the slots. Simulation results and logical proofs verify that AERG satisfies economic properties such as budget balance, truthfulness and individual rationality and improves the utilities of the participants.

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Internet-of-Things (IoT) enabling technologies such as ZigBee, WiFi, 6LowPAN, RFID, Machine-to-Machine, LTE-Advanced, etc. depend on the license-free Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) bands for the Internet. The proliferation of IoT devices is not only anticipated to create a huge amount of congestion in the near future, but even now the unlicensed spectrum is not enough in the ISM bands. Towards this end, Cognitive Radio (CR) technology can resolve the spectrum shortage issue since CR users can opportunistically exploit white spaces in licensed channels of the adjacent wireless systems. In CR networks, it is critical to coordinate spectrum access among Secondary Users (SUs) while protecting priority rights of Primary Users (PUs). Therein, SUs need to take good care of hidden PUs in order to avoid harmful interference. Further, a densely deployed CR network can compromise spectrum sensing quality and certainty of the results when a large number of SUs contends to access the same channel. Therefore, based on the vulnerable sensing results, SUs can cause interference to the PUs. In this paper, we first investigate the leading issues and then propose a novel Handshake Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (HSMA/CA) protocol for CR-based IoT networks. Our proposed HSMA/CA scheme resolves hidden primary terminal problem and maintains sufficient priority rights to PUs in a densely distributed network. In addition, we optimize the spectrum sensing period to maximize the system performance by maintaining peculiarities in the sensing operation like false alarm and misdetection. To evaluate the performance of HSMA/CA, we have analyzed the protocol through the Markov chain model in terms of throughput and verify its accuracy by simulations. Simulation results show that our scheme is suitable for non-collaborative densely deployed CR-based IoT networks.

The widespread growth of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and its dependence on the license-exempt Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands have made spectrum resources scarce. IoT can nonetheless get advantage from the Cognitive Radio (CR) technology to resolve the spectrum shortage issue. Since in CR networks the unlicensed Secondary Users (SUs) can exploit the white spaces in licensed channels of Primary Users (PUs) opportunistically. CR ad hoc networks are more useful in IoT due to ease of installation, low cost, and less complexity. However, CR ad hoc networks are prone to the rendezvous issue and hidden primary terminal problem. Moreover, the available channels in the CR system are not identical, PUs’ and SUs’ activities can diversify them as well. In this connection, channel selection by SUs is a complex balancing act since the transmission opportunities are space, frequency and time bounded. In this paper, we hence proposed a new Ranked Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (RSMA/CA) protocol for multichannel CR-based IoT networks. Our proposed RSMA/CA protocol not only resolves the hidden primary terminal problem but also avoids hidden and exposed terminal problems at the same time by mutual spectrum sensing. We suggest a new channel ranking mechanism to rank the available channels based on the long term qualities of the channels, PUs’ return rate, and SUs’ activities and tailor-made the algorithms in an existing scheme to make the rendezvous process more efficient. We analyze the performance of our proposed RSMA/CA in terms of normalized throughput through the Markov chain model and compared with that of the existing scheme. Simulation results show that our RSMA/CA protocol outperforms the existing scheme due to efficient rendezvous and access mechanisms.