Dynamic Spectrum Management with Competitive Market Equilibrium

In an effort to improve the efficiency of spectrum usage, the cognitive radio (CR) [1] technology was proposed, bringing the possibility of dynamic spectrum management (DSM) [2]. Generally speaking, the multiuser communication systems in the background of CR are interference-limited. Power control is one of the central issues in the design of these systems. This problem can be modeled as a competitive market equilibrium (CME) system. In this paper, we reveal the differences between the CME problem and the standard Linear Complementary Problem (LCP), and then derive the closed form solution to a simplified CME problem. We also propose a hybrid algorithm as an alternative to the tâtonnement process [3] in case the latter diverges. When the convergence conditions are not tenable, it is shown that the proposed algorithm can reduce the processing delay compared with the tâtonnement process.