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Spectrum Management in Dynamic Spectrum Access: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach

Dynamic spectrum access (DSA) is a promising technology to mitigate spectrum shortage and improve spectrum utilization. However, DSA users have to face two fundamental issues, interference coordination between DSA users and protections to primary users (PUs). These two issues are very challenging, since generally there is no powerful infrastructure in DSA networks to support centralized control. As a result, DSA users have to perform spectrum managements, including spectrum access and power allocations, independently without accurate channel state information. In this thesis, a novel spectrum management approach is proposed, in which Q-learning, a type of reinforcement learning, is utilized to enable DSA users to carry out effective spectrum managements individually and intelligently. For more efficient processes, powerful neural networks (NNs) are employed to implement Q-learning processes, so-called deep Q-network (DQN). Furthermore, I also investigate the optimal way to construct DQN considering both the performance of wireless communications and the difficulty of NN training. Finally, extensive simulation studies are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed spectrum management approach. / Generally, in dynamic spectrum access (DSA) networks, co-operations and centralized control are unavailable and DSA users have to carry out wireless transmissions individually. DSA users have to know other users’ behaviors by sensing and analyzing wireless environments, so that DSA users can adjust their parameters properly and carry out effective wireless transmissions. In this thesis, machine learning and deep learning technologies are leveraged in DSA network to enable appropriate and intelligent spectrum managements, including both spectrum access and power allocations. Accordingly, a novel spectrum management framework utilizing deep reinforcement learning is proposed, in which deep reinforcement learning is employed to accurately learn wireless environments and generate optimal spectrum management strategies to adapt to the variations of wireless environments. Due to the model-free nature of reinforcement learning, DSA users only need to directly interact with environments to obtain optimal strategies rather than relying on accurate channel estimations. In this thesis, Q-learning, a type of reinforcement learning, is adopted to design the spectrum management framework. For more efficient and accurate learning, powerful neural networks (NN) is employed to combine Q-learning and deep learning, also referred to as deep Q-network (DQN). The selection of NNs is crucial for the performance of DQN, since different types of NNs possess various properties and are applicable for different application scenarios. Therefore, in this thesis, the optimal way to construct DQN is also analyzed and studied. Finally, the extensive simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed spectrum management framework could enable users to perform proper spectrum managements and achieve better performance.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/95953
Date January 2019
CreatorsSong, Hao
ContributorsElectrical and Computer Engineering, Liu, Lingjia, Dhillon, Harpreet Singh, Yang, Yaling
PublisherVirginia Tech
Source SetsVirginia Tech Theses and Dissertation
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
FormatETD, application/pdf
RightsIn Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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