  In this paper, we examine cognitive radio systems that evolve dynamically
over time due to changing user and environmental conditions. To combine the
advantages of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and
multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) technologies, we consider a MIMO-OFDM
cognitive radio network where wireless users with multiple antennas communicate
over several non-interfering frequency bands. As the network's primary users
(PUs) come and go in the system, the communication environment changes
constantly (and, in many cases, randomly). Accordingly, the network's
unlicensed, secondary users (SUs) must adapt their transmit profiles "on the
fly" in order to maximize their data rate in a rapidly evolving environment
over which they have no control. In this dynamic setting, static solution
concepts (such as Nash equilibrium) are no longer relevant, so we focus on
dynamic transmit policies that lead to no regret: specifically, we consider
policies that perform at least as well as (and typically outperform) even the
best fixed transmit profile in hindsight. Drawing on the method of matrix
exponential learning and online mirror descent techniques, we derive a
no-regret transmit policy for the system's SUs which relies only on local
channel state information (CSI). Using this method, the system's SUs are able
to track their individually evolving optimum transmit profiles remarkably well,
even under rapidly (and randomly) changing conditions. Importantly, the
proposed augmented exponential learning (AXL) policy leads to no regret even if
the SUs' channel measurements are subject to arbitrarily large observation
errors (the imperfect CSI case), thus ensuring the method's robustness in the
presence of uncertainties.
