Cognitive Radio Spectrum Management and Waveform Adaptation for Advanced Wideband Space Communication Systems

ABSTRACT: Within the last decade, game theoretic approaches have emerged as viable tools to analyze distributed wireless resource allocation problems and design distributed transmission strategies. Conventional game theoretic designs for wireless resource allocation problems do not consider jamming issues in the context of network utility maximization. These conventional game theoretic designs are expected to offer inadequate throughput and reliability in highly dynamic adversarial communication environments with security threats such as the space/air/ground USAF domain. The objective of this STTR project is to investigate, study, and analyze game theoretic approaches to find optimal waveform design and resource allocation solutions for wideband cognitive radio systems coexisting with high priority primary users as well as persistent jammers. While the core of cognitive radio network proposals rely on the notion of spectrum hole, i.e., radios attempt to find a single unused band which can be opportunistically used by secondary users, in the work outlined in this proposal cognitive users transmit wideband signals (in the form of OFDM and CDM) that are designed to adaptively avoid the interference dynamics of the available spectrum at the receiver and maximize network utility. In our approach, we will be developing a new theoretical framework based on a hybrid underlay/overlay waveform design approach based on game theoretical foundations to rigorously derive provably-efficient distributed algorithms. We will develop algorithms for joint adaptive waveform design and resource allocation using a repeated game formulation where the players consist of both users and the jammers. Our formulations will incorporate asymmetric information structures from the network and the jammers"perspective. BENEFIT: This technology will benefit the military as well as commercial satellite communications applications.