Primary radio user activity models for cognitive radio networks: A survey

Abstract Cognitive Radio Networks have been emerged as a promising solution for solving the problem of spectrum scarcity and improving spectrum utilization by opportunistic use of spectrum. Cognitive radio networks utilize the spectrum which is licensed to primary radio users when they are not utilizing it, i.e., when the spectrum is idle. Thus, the performance of cognitive radio networks is highly dependent upon the activity of primary radio users. Hence, it is very important to model primary radio users activity in cognitive radio networks. By keeping this in mind, several models in the literature have been proposed for modeling primary radio users activity. But there is not any source which consolidate all these models into single platform. Therefore, this paper combines all the primary radio user activity models for cognitive radio networks at a single place. The goal of this paper is to provide a single source in the form of survey paper by which a reader can get an idea about which primary radio user activity models have been used in the literature for cognitive radio networks and how the modeling is performed. Furthermore, we also discuss issues, challenges and future directions for primary radio activity models. In fact, in this paper, different primary radio user activity models have been presented along with their classification. This paper also discusses those approaches which performed real implementation for spectrum occupancy along with spectrum bands on which the implementation is performed and location where implementation is carried out. In summary, this paper provides up-to-date survey of primary radio user activity models for cognitive radio networks.