NetSE:Small: Human Behavior Inspired Cognitive Radio Network Design

Cognitive radios enabling dynamic spectrum access are envisioned to sense the environment and self-learn to maximize an individual or group utility function. This results in cheating, irrational behavior, inequality aversion, altruism, learning from past memory, etc. These traits are strikingly similar to human behavior and social interactions. Therefore, this project explores this parallelism going beyond traditional game theoretic analysis.

What are the implications if communication protocols in a cognitive radio network resemble human behavioral and psychological interactions? Will the network develop its own psychology with random perturbations, similar to human evolution?

These are the fundamental questions addressed in this project using tools from social science and behavioral games. Some of the main theoretical ideas will be implemented in SpiderRadio, a cognitive radio network prototype developed in the PIs? laboratory at Stevens.

Intellectual Merit: The intellectual merit of this project is an inter-disciplinary effort that

overlaps human behavioral models, cognitive psychology, economic models, decision theory and dynamic spectrum access. Emerging social science concepts such as evolutionary and cognitive psychology, behavioral economics, drama theory, personal and social dilemmas are used to model various types of interactions among cognitive radio nodes in a network.

Broader Impact: The outcomes of this project will have a broader impact on wireless networking research and spectrum policy making communities. This project also gives a unique opportunity for students in engineering and psychology to collaborate. Finally, some of the ideas presented here will impact the next generation standards in cognitive radio networking.