Achievable Rates of Cognitive Radio Networks Using Multi-Layer Coding with Limited CSI

In a Cognitive Radio (CR) framework, the channel state information (CSI) feedback to the secondary transmitter (SU Tx) can be limited or unavailable. Thus, the statistical model is adopted in order to determine the system performance using the outage concept. In this paper, we adopt a new approach using multi-layer-coding (MLC) strategy, i.e., broadcast approach, to enhance spectrum sharing over fading channels. First, we consider a scenario where the secondary transmitter has no CSI of both the link between SU Tx and the primary receiver (cross-link) and its own link. We show that using MLC improves the cognitive rate compared to the rate provided by a singlelayer- coding (SLC). In addition, we observe numerically that 2-Layer coding achieves most of the gain for Rayleigh fading. Second, we analyze a scenario where SU Tx is provided by partial CSI about its link through quantized CSI. We compute its achievable rate adopting the MLC and highlight the improvement over SLC. Finally, we study the case in which the cross-link is perfect, i.e., a cooperative primary user setting, and compare the performance with the previous cases. We present asymptotic analysis at high power regime and show that the cooperation enhances considerably the cognitive rate at high values of the secondary power budget.