CO-TORA on-demand routing protocol for cognitive radio ad-hoc networks

Cognitive radio networks are emerging kind of wireless networks with cognitive radio nodes able to have dynamic spectrum access in order to make use more efficiently of the spectrum. The routing problem in such networks is quite complex due to the dynamic nature of the spectral environment where the availability of frequency bands for cognitive radio nodes is opportunistic. In this paper, we propose a robust and efficient routing solution in terms of throughput. Our proposition is a reactive routing protocol (named cognitive temporary ordering routing algorithm) CO-TORA based on the classic TORA protocol proposed for non cognitive wireless ad-hoc networks. We also implement CO-TORA in largely used NS-2 simulator. The utilization of CO-TORA protocol brings to the system many performance improvements that are evaluated by simulations and shown by comparing it with classical TORA.