Journal of Computations & Modelling, vol.3, no.3, 2013, 177-193 ISSN: 1792-7625 (print), 1792-8850 (online) Scienpress Ltd, 2013 User Scheduling in Cognitive Radio Networks Jalaj Bhandari 1 and Nomesh Bolia 2 Abstract We consider spectrum management in Cognitive Radio (CR) net- works. We model primary users (PUs) activity on a channel and con- sider finite number of secondary users (SUs). We study the trade-off be- tween two conflicting objectives of minimizing overall data queue lengths for the system and maintaining the quality of service to users. We use Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) to model this and derive an easy to implement scheduling policy. Using simulations, we demonstrate and compare the performance of our policy. Mathematics Subject Classification: 90C40 Keywords: Cognitive Radio Networks; User Scheduling; Resource Allocation; Markov Decision Processes 1 Introduction The popularity and use of wireless networks has increased manifold in the last decade, leading to the emergence of spectrum shortage as one of the major 1 Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. 2 Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Article Info: Received : June 2, 2013. Revised : July 28, 2013 Published online : September 15, 2013