Cognitive Overlay for Inter-system Cellular Dynamic Spectrum Sharing in the Downlink

This paper assesses the feasibility of a novel dynamic spectrum sharing approach for a cellular downlink based on cognitive overlay to allow non-orthogonal cellular transmissions from a primary and a secondary radio access technology concurrently on the same radio resources. The 2-user Gaussian cognitive interference channel is used to model a downlink scenario in which the primary and secondary base stations are co-located. A system architecture is defined that addresses practical challenges associated with cognitive overlay, in particular the non-causal knowledge of the primary user message at the cognitive transmitter. A cognitive overlay scheme is applied that combines superposition coding with dirty paper coding, and a primary user protection criterion is derived that is specific to a scenario in which the primary system is 4G while the secondary system is 5G. Simulation is used to evaluate the achievable signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the 4G and 5G receivers, as well as the cognitive power allocation parameter as a function of distance. Results suggest that the cognitive overlay scheme is feasible when the distance to the 5G receiver is relatively small, even when a large majority of the secondary user transmit power is allocated to protecting the primary user transmission. Achievable link distances for the 5G receiver are on the order of hundreds of meters for an urban macrocell or a few kilometers for a rural macrocell.