Analysis of spectrum handoff schemes in cognitive radio network using particle swarm optimization

Cognitive radio (CR) is an intelligent technique which is used to improve the spectrum utilization through four main functions: spectrum sensing, spectrum decision, spectrum sharing and spectrum mobility. In this paper, we focus on spectrum mobility (or called spectrum handoff) that occurs when the primary users (PUs) appear to occupy its licensed band that used by secondary users (SUs). We discuss the three spectrum handoff mechanisms that used to reduce the handoff delay (proactive, reactive and hybrid). We implement particle swarm optimization (PSO) to minimize the total service time of spectrum handoff to the optimal value. Numerical results show that PSO is significantly minimizing the total service time compared to other spectrum handoff schemes.