On the Optimality of Myopic Sensing in Multi-channel Opportunistic Access: the Case of Sensing Multiple Channels

TL;DR

This paper investigates the optimality of myopic sensing policies in multi-channel opportunistic access, demonstrating their optimality when sensing two channels under certain conditions, but also providing counterexamples in more general scenarios.

Contribution

It extends the analysis of myopic sensing policies to the case of sensing multiple channels, establishing optimality in specific settings and highlighting limitations in more general cases.

Findings

Myopic sensing is optimal when sensing two channels under certain conditions.

Counterexamples show non-optimality of myopic sensing in more general scenarios.

The study characterizes the structure of myopic policies in multi-channel sensing.

Abstract

Recent works have developed a simple and robust myopic sensing policy for multi-channel opportunistic communication systems where a secondary user (SU) can access one of N i.i.d. Markovian channels. The optimality of the myopic sensing policy in maximizing the SU's cumulated reward is established under certain conditions on channel parameters. This paper studies the generic case where the SU can sense more than one channel each time. By characterizing the myopic sensing policy in this context, we establish analytically its optimality for certain system setting when the SU is allowed to sense two channels. In the more generic case, we construct counterexamples to show that the myopic sensing policy, despite its simple structure, is non-optimal.