  The main challenges of cognitive radio include spectrum sensing at the
physical (PHY) layer to detect the activity of primary users and spectrum
sharing at the medium access control (MAC) layer to coordinate access among
coexisting secondary users. In this paper, we consider a cognitive radio
network in which a primary user shares a channel with secondary users that
cannot distinguish the signals of the primary user from those of a secondary
user. We propose a class of distributed cognitive MAC protocols to achieve
efficient spectrum sharing among the secondary users while protecting the
primary user from potential interference by the secondary users. By using a MAC
protocol with one-slot memory, we can obtain high channel utilization by the
secondary users while limiting interference to the primary user at a low level.
The results of this paper suggest the possibility of utilizing MAC design in
cognitive radio networks to overcome limitations in spectrum sensing at the PHY
layer as well as to achieve spectrum sharing at the MAC layer.
