Performance of an OFDMA based multichannel slotted ALOHA for cognitive radios

We present an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) based multichannel slotted ALOHA for cognitive radio networks (OMSA-CR). The performance of an infinite population based OMSA-CR system is analyzed in terms of channel capacity, throughput, delay, and packet capture effect. We investigate the channel capacity for OMSA-CR with perfect or imperfect spectrum sensing. We introduce the proposed CR MAC based on two channel selection schemes: non-agile channel selection (NCS) and agile channel selection (ACS). Comparing them, we show the tradeoff between complexity and system performance. We verify the proposed CR system model using numerical analysis. In particular, using simulation with a finite populated linear feedback model, we observe the OMSA-CR MAC tradeoff between throughput and minimum delay whose results matched those of the analytical framework. Numerical results for the proposed system throughput are also compared to conventional MACs, including pure ALOHA based CR MAC.