Distributed Algorithms for Learning and Cognitive Medium Access with Logarithmic Regret

Abstract

The problem of distributed learning and channel access is considered in a cognitive network with multiple secondary users. The availability statistics of the channels are initially unknown to the secondary users and are estimated using sensing decisions. There is no explicit information exchange or prior agreement among the secondary users. We propose policies for distributed learning and access which achieve order-optimal cognitive system throughput (number of successful secondary transmissions) under self play, i.e., when implemented at all the secondary users. Equivalently, our policies minimize the regret in distributed learning and access. We first consider the scenario when the number of secondary users is known to the policy and prove that the total regret is logarithmic in the number of transmission slots. Our distributed learning and access policy achieves order-optimal regret by comparing to an asymptotic lower bound for regret under any uniformly-good learning and access policy. We then consider the case when the number of secondary users is fixed but unknown, and is estimated through feedback. We propose a policy in this scenario whose asymptotic sum regret which grows slightly faster than logarithmic in the number of transmission slots.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 08, 2010
Accession Number
ADA524660

Entities

People

  • Ananthram Swami
  • Anima Anandkumar
  • Ao K. Tang
  • Nithin Michael

Organizations

  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Algorithms
  • Availability
  • Channel Models
  • Communication Networks
  • Computer Science
  • Distance Learning
  • Electronic Mail
  • Engineering
  • Feedback
  • Information Exchange
  • Markov Chains
  • Probability
  • Random Variables
  • Simulations
  • Statistics
  • Throughput

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Calculus or Mathematical Analysis
  • Computer Networking
  • Industrial Economics