Why the caged cognitive radio sings

Abstract

In our earlier papers [1] and [2], we have proposed a jail-based enforcement mechanism for cognitive radios inspired by the human criminal justice system. In the previous papers, we covered a throughput-greedy cognitive user, and in this paper, we extend those results to devices that care about energy, as well as mixed devices that care about both energy and time. We do this by introducing a ‘singing’ sanction that forces devices to burn energy while they sit in jail. Through this exploration, we see a number of effects coming out: a homeband (which may be an unlicensed band) is required to present an alternative band to legally transmit in when it is difficult to operate legally in the cognitive band. Also, when the primary is very rarely active, it is practically impossible to deter cheating, so alternate policy decisions must be made for these cases. Finally, it is possible to create a singing plus jail sanction that is sufficient to deter bad behavior for all types of devices in all types of situations. But in order to enforce against everyone, while keeping overhead low, the rate of wrongful convictions must be kept small.