Sequential Learning for Multi-Channel Wireless Network Monitoring with Channel Switching Costs

We consider the problem of optimally assigning $p$ sniffers to $K$ channels to monitor the transmission activities in a multichannel wireless network with switching costs. The activity of users is initially unknown to the sniffers and is to be learned along with channel assignment decisions to maximize the benefits of this assignment, resulting in the fundamental tradeoff between exploration and exploitation. Switching costs are incurred when …