Application of Cognitive Radio Technology for Smart

Grid Communication
A report for Mid-Semester Project Evaluations 2016-17
Ajit Kumar Behera, 712EC5140
Under the guidance of Dr. S. Deshmukh
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, NIT Rourkela

Abstract- Cognitive Radio is a novel concept that enables

wireless systems to sense the environment, adapt, and learn from
previous experience to improve the quality of the communication.
Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technique is
investigated as a candidate transmission technology for cognitive
radio. In cognitive radio networks, it is important to effectively
use the under-utilized resources without affecting the primary
users. The mode selection depends on the transition
characteristics of primary users and the throughput ration
between the two modes of operation.
KeywordsCognitive Radio, OFDM Technique, Underlay,
Overlay, Resource allocation.

I.

INTRODUCTION

A main feature of CR is the autonomous exploitation of locally

unused spectrum to improve spectrum utilization. Other
features include interoperability across several networks,
devices, and protocols; the capability of roaming across
borders while remaining in compliance with local regulations;
and the capability of adapting the system, transmission, and the
reception parameters without user intervention; as well as the
ability to understand and follow actions taken and choices
made by users in order to learn and become more responsive
over time. For cognitive radio to achieve this objective, the
physical layer (PHY) must be highly flexible and adaptable.
Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) has the
potential of fulfilling the aforementioned requirements of CR
inherently or with minor modification. In cognitive radio
networks reliable and faster sensing is very important. A
secondary user can sense only one channel at a time and the
primary user channel can change the state at the end of each
time slot. Our sensing focus is based on the primary user traffic
predication. The objective of the access scheme is to maximize
the long term throughput of a secondary user with minimal
interference to the primary users and the limited sensing
information. This work mainly focuses on the study of the
transmission mode (Underlay/Overlay) selection to maximize
secondary users throughput based on the traffic characteristics
and interferences thresholds of the primary users. The
underlying sensing and spectrum shaping capabilities of
OFDM, together with its flexibility and adaptivity, probably
make it best transmission technology for CR systems.

II.

SENSING AND SHAPING

In OFDM systems, conversion from time domain to

frequency domain is achieved by using FFT. Hence all the
points in the time frequency grid of the operating of the OFDM
systems can be scanned without any extra hardware or
computation due to the reuse of the hardware of the FFT cores.
Using the time frequency grid, a selection of bins that are
available for exploitation (spectrum holes) can be carried out
using simple hypothesis testing. Averaging in time increases
the delay or temporal overhead. The averaging size (number of
FFTs) is adapted to increase the efficiency in a cooperative
sensing environment. The FFT output is filtered for noise
averaging to obtain better performance. In these sensing
algorithm, the availability of FFT circuitry in OFDM systems
eases the requirement of the hardware. The receiver already
applies FFT to the received signal to transform the received
signal into frequency domain for data detection.
By disabling a set of subcarriers, the spectrum of OFDM
signals can be shaped adaptively to fit into required spectrum
mask. The two LUs are detected using the output of the FFT
block, and subcarriers that could cause interference with these
LUs are turned off. The transmitter then uses the unoccupied
part of the spectrum for signal transmission.
In a cognitive radio network, the secondary users use the
primary channels opportunistically. We classify the state of a
primary user channels into three states in the view of a
secondary user. They are:
1)
The channels is not being used by
the primary user and hence the channel is
said to be idle. The secondary user can be
opportunistically use that channel and its
state is denoted by State I (Idle).
2)
The primary user occupies the
channels and the secondary user occupancy
will cause interference to the primary user.
Since the primary users get higher priority,
the secondary users are not allowed to use
that channel. This state of the channel is
denoted by State B (busy).

3)
In few instances (where the
interference caused by the secondary users
to the primary user is below a certain
threshold), secondary users are allowed to
share the channel with primary users. In that
case, both primary and secondary user
transmits with low power. Hence, the data
rate would be low. This channel state is
denoted by State U (Similar to Underlay).

For the spectrum underlay paradigm, it is

required that an interference limit corresponding
to an interference temperature level be
maintained at receiving points of the primary
network.
III.

IV.
Fig 1. Spectrum sensing and shaping using
OFDM
Therefore, we use a three state Markov chain
to model each primary user channel as shown in
Fig. 2. The states are dened for a single primary
user channel as summarized below:
State I: The channel is idle and it can be
occupied by the secondary user.
State B: The channel is occupied by the
primary user and no secondary user can share
this channel.
State U: The channel is occupied by the
primary user but it can be used by the secondary
user with low transmit power.
Based on the sensing result and predened
interference threshold, secondary user decides
whether to share the channel with primary user or
not.
In the spectrum overlay paradigm, secondary
users are only allowed to access spectrum
resources (i.e. channels) owned by the primary
network provider if these channels are not being
used by primary users. Here, spectrum sensing
needs to be performed to avoid possible collision
with primary users.

RESULTS & DISCUSSION

Cognitive radio is an exciting and promising technology

that offers a solution to the spectrum crowding problem.
OFDM can be used for realizing the cognitive radio concept
because of its inherent capabilities. By employing OFDM
transmission in Cognitive radio systems, adaptive, aware, and
flexible systems that can interoperate with current technologies
can be realized. OFDM will be the dominant PHY technology
for Cognitive radio. When primary user channel characteristics
are given, we can find the best access strategy for the
secondary user. When the data rate ratio increases, the strategy
A performs better (Access with sharing the channel) for a
positively correlated primary user traffic. The proper strategy
selection can provide throughput gain over the other. The
performance loss due to imperfect sensing and the gain due to
sensing of multiple channels can be evacuated when using the
proposed transmission mode selection.
SCOPE FOR FUTURE WORK

It is very much essential to reduce the dimension of the

implanted structure further and to enhance the sensitivity
regarding detection of signal. As per the current scenario, there
can be more work in this regard. The following research steps
can be employed in future. They are : 1) acquisition of
temporal waveform; 2) in vivo evaluation; 3) miniaturization of
implant size (e.g., by taking higher permittivity substrates
and/or by using Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS)
fabrication techniques); 4) further improvement of the system's
neural signal detection sensitivity to detect all brain signals; 5)
improvement in the biocompatibility of the implant and its
flexibility (e.g., polyimide or parylene substrates to fabricate
the implanted sensor and antenna); 6) introduction of
multichannel sensing for multiple signal detection; and 7)
body-area-network implementation.
REFERENCES
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Opportunistic Access Strategies in Hybrid Underlay-Overlay Cognitive Radio
Networks, IEEE Transcations on Wireless Communication, VOL-11, 2012
[2] [2] Long Bao Le, Ekram Hossain, Resource Allocation for spectrum
underlay in cognitive radio networks, IEEE Transcations on Wireless
Communication Vol 7 2008
[3] [3] Hisham A. Mahmoud, Tevfik Yucek, Huseyin Arslan, OFDM for
Cognitive Radio: Merits and Challenges, University of South Florida,
Accepted from Open Call
[4] [4] Vehbi Cagri Gungor, Dilan Sahin Cognitive Radio Networks for
Smart Grid Applications, IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine June 2012
[5] Zhong Fan, Parag Kulkarni, et all Smart Grid Communications:
Overview of Research Challenges, Solutions and Standardization
Activities, IEEE Communication Survey , 2013