Multi-Objective Resource Allocation for Cognitive Radio Networks (An Exercise in Study Group Management)

In this talk we will discuss a problem that was worked on during MISGSA 2020, a Study Group held in January at The University of Zululand, South Africa.

We look at a communication network with two types of users - Primary users (PU) and Secondary users (SU) - such that we reduce the network to a set of overlapping sub-graphs consisting of SUs indexed by a specific PU. Within any given sub-graph, the PU may be communicating at a certain fixed frequency F. The respective SUs also wish to communicate at the same frequency F, but not at the expense of interfering with the PU signal. Therefore if the PU is active then the SUs will not communicate.

In an attempt to increase information throughput in the network, we instead allow the SUs to communicate at a different frequency G, which may or may not interfere with a different sub-graph PU in the network, leading to a multi-objective optimisation problem.

We will discuss not only the problem formulation and possible approaches for solving it, but also the pitfalls that can be easily fallen into during study groups.