Cross-layer combining of information-guided transmission withnetwork coding relaying for multiuser cognitive radio systems

For a cognitive radio relaying network, we propose a cross-layer design by combining information-guided transmission at the physical layer and network coding at the network layer. With this design, a common relay is exploited to help the communications between multiple secondary source-destination pairs, which allows for a more efficient use of the radio resources, and moreover, generates less interference to primary licensees in the network. Considering the spectrum-sharing constraints on the relay and secondary sources, the achievable data rate of the proposed cross-layer design is derived and evaluated. Numerical results on average capacity and uniform capacity in the network under study substantiate the efficiency of our proposed design. © 2013 IEEE.