Opportunistic Ambient Backscatter Communication in RF-Powered Cognitive Radio Networks

We propose a novel opportunistic ambient backscatter communication (ABC) framework for radio frequency (RF)-powered cognitive radio (CR) networks. The proposed framework considers opportunistic spectrum sensing integrated with ABC and harvest-then-transmit (HTT) operation strategies. Novel analytic expressions are derived for the average throughput, average energy consumption and energy efficiency in the considered set up. In addition, we formulate an optimization problem to maximize the energy efficiency of the CR system operating in mixed ABC- and HTT-modes, subject to primary interference and energy harvesting constraints. Next, we determine the optimal set of parameters which in turn comprise the optimal detection threshold, and the optimal degree of tradeoff between the CR system operating in the ABC- and HTT-modes. We present extensive numerical results to corroborate our analysis and to demonstrate the performance gain of the proposed model in terms of energy efficiency.