Cognitive radio networks (CRNs) have received considerable attention and viewed as a promising paradigm for future wireless networking. Its major difference from the traditional wireless networks is that secondary users are allowed to access the channel if they pose no harmful interference to primary users. This distinct feature of CRNs has raised an essential and challenging question, i.e., how to accurately estimate interference to the primary users from the secondary users? In addition, spectrum sensing plays a critical role in CRNs. Secondary users have to sense the channel before they transmit. A two-state sensing model is commonly used, which classifies a channel into either busy or idle state. Secondary users can only utilize a channel when it is detected to be in idle state. In this paper, we tackle the estimation of interference at the primary receiver due to concurrently active secondary users. With the spectrum sensing, secondary users are refrained from transmitting once an active user falls into their sensing range. As a result, the maximum number of simultaneously interfering secondary users is bounded, typically ranging from 1 to 4. This significant conclusion considerably simplifies interference modeling in CRNs. The authors present all the cases with possible simultaneously interfering secondary users. Moreover, the authors derive the probability for each case. Extensive simulations are conducted and results validate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed approach.
