  In this paper, a joint cross-layer design of adaptive modulation and coding
(AMC) and cooperative automatic repeat request (C-ARQ) scheme is proposed for a
secondary user in a shared-spectrum environment. First, based on the
statistical descriptions of the channel, closed-form expressions of the average
spectral efficiency (SE) and the average packet loss rate (PLR) are presented.
Then, the cross-layer scheme is designed, with the aim of maximizing the
average SE while maintaining the average PLR under a prescribed level. An
optimization problem is formed, and a sub-optimal solution is found: the target
packet error rates (PER) for the secondary system channels are obtained and the
corresponding sub-optimal AMC rate adaptation policy is derived based on the
target PERs. Finally, the average SE and the average PLR performance of the
proposed scheme are presented.
