Quality of service provisioning through resource optimisation in heterogeneous cognitive radio sensor networks

Abstract

Recently, cognitive radio sensor networks (CRSN) have evolved as a result of the introduction of cognitive capabilities to conventional wireless sensor networks. In most CRSN designs, secondary users and/or sensor nodes are permitted, under certain constraints, to use the limited resources of a primary network. One major challenge with CRSN is how to optimally appropriate and use the limited resources available in driving their communication demands. To overcome this challenge, in this paper, we develop a resource allocation (RA) model that is capable of achieving a target quality of service (QoS) demand for the heterogeneous CRSN, despite the huge resource constraints imposed on the network. The RA problem developed is a complex optimisation problem. We analyse and solve the complex RA problem using the optimisation approaches of integer linear programming, Lagrangian duality and by a heuristic. We then study the performance of the RA model for the different solution approaches investigated. The results obtained are used to establish the optimality-complexity trade-off, which is a critical criterion for QoS decision-making in practical CRSN applications.