Visitor's Talk



A Decision-Theoretic Framework for Opportunistic Spectrum Access

• Speaker: Qing Zhao, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of California, Davis

• Abstract:
  Built upon a hierarchical access structure with primary and secondary users, opportunistic spectrum access resolves the inefficiency of the current command-and-control model of spectrum regulation while maintaining compatibility with legacy wireless systems. The basic idea is to allow secondary users to exploit instantaneous spectrum availability and communicate non-intrusively to primary users.
  In this talk, we consider opportunistic spectrum access for secondary networks where there is no central coordinator nor dedicated communication channel. We develop an analytical framework for opportunistic spectrum access based on the theory of Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP). This decision-theoretic approach integrates the design of spectrum access protocols at the MAC layer with spectrum sensing at the physical layer. We obtain the optimal joint design of spectrum sensor and sensing/access strategy that maximizes the throughput of secondary users under the constraint on the probability of colliding with primary users.

• Biographical Sketch:
  Qing Zhao received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering in 2001 from Cornell University. In 2004, she joined the ECE department at UC Davis where she is currently an assistant professor. Her research interests are in the general area of signal processing, communications, and wireless networking.
  Qing Zhao received the 2000 IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award. She is an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing and an elected member of the Signal Processing for Communications technical committee of the IEEE Signal Processing Society