Decode and forward buffer aided relay selection and transmission power allocation systems and method are provided for cognitive radio network that is equipped with multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO). A low complexity MIMO-based relay selection scheme that maximizes the single-hop normalized sum rate of the primary network (PN) and secondary network (SN) is proposed including a sub-optimal antenna transmission power allocation scheme that maximizes the single-hop normalized sum rate of the PN and the SN is proposed. For power optimization, first, optimal expressions for the transmission power per antenna of both the PN and SN nodes are derived separately. The derived expressions are then used in an iterative algorithm to produce a near-optimum solution that maximizes the normalized sum rate per time slot.