Impact of Direct Communications on the Performance of Cooperative Spectrum-Sharing with Two-Way Relays and Maximal Ratio Combining

In this paper, we investigate a three-phase two-way (TW) amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying for cognitive radio networks. By utilizing the direct communications, the end user can employ maximal ratio combining to achieve the full diversity. We derive the closed-form and asymptotic expressions for user and system outage probabilities which allow us to highlight the advantage of cooperative cognitive communications. The numerical results, obtained through compact forms of these outage probabilities, yield that the cognitive TW AF relaying scheme can significantly enhance the reliability of unlicensed networks in which the transmit power at each secondary user is strictly governed.