Decision Making under Uncertainty for Dynamic Spectrum Access in space application

ABSTRACT: This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project develops collaborative spectrum awareness techniques that enable dynamic spectrum access (DSA) systems to make decisions with imperfect awareness. DSA technologies are emerging as a promising mitigator against spectrum congestion resulting from the explosive growth in commercial and Government wireless systems and services. DSA systems have demonstrated the potential for allowing increased spectrum access to greater numbers of users, assuming perfect system knowledge. Challenges still remain for widespread fielding of DSA systems, including the necessary ability to make decisions under uncertainty. The proposed effort seeks to develop, demonstrate, and implement the technical underpinnings and algorithms for DSA system operation in satellite communication environment under conditions of imperfect knowledge. It specifically proposes an integration of Bayesian game and decision-theoretic approaches to combine data from multiple collaborative sensing and static sources to increase awareness and spectrum utilization efficiency. Representation of uncertainty in the knowledge base is accomplished through probabilistic ontology and Bayesian reasoning technologies. The resulting capabilities allow DSA systems to evaluate and make trades among capacity gain, interference mitigation, and monetary cost in uncertain operating environments. BENEFIT: This effort will advance research into areas of spectrum awareness and sensing strategies for DSA networks with incomplete and imperfect knowledge. The proposed research will develop a combination of distinct innovative game, information, and Bayesian-techniques considering aspects affecting scalability with respect to the computation, communication, and complexity of the DSA in space communication environment, which are applicable to High data Rate Airborne Terminal and XG DSA2100. The proposed effort will produce generalized models, ontologies, algorithms, and theories for multi-modal information fusion to a wide range of collaborative sensing and awareness approaches. Furthermore, the effort will provide a quantitative and qualitative evaluation understanding of information utility (performance gain as a function of system resource expenditure) and scalability constraints for spectrum awareness in DSA systems. The technological developments will impact cognitive wireless network understanding, congestion mitigation, and reliable access with unprecedented applicability to critical decision-making problems in a wide variety of civilian, commercial, and military contexts. The incorporation of uncertainty concepts and evaluation mechanisms into the DSA system awareness and decision processes is also expected to generate significant research interest beyond the proposed effort for service organizations. The commercial potential includes applications such as multi-organizational urban surveillance networks, disaster response networks, transportation networks, and cellular networks.