Joint Channel Assignment and Routing in Cognitive Radio-Based Wireless Mesh Networks

Cognitive radio (CR) is a promising technology that can be a solution for the frequency scarcity problem of the wireless mesh network operating on multiple channels. In this paper, we investigate the joint channel assignment and routing in CR-based wireless mesh networks (CRWMNs) for better coexistence with primary users and other CR networks. We formulate an optimization problem with the objective of minimizing the number of operating channels in CRWMNs while satisfying the given traffic demand. Since the formulated problem is NP-hard, we develop a heuristic algorithm to solve the problem. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme helps CRWMNs operate stably under the environment that the coexistence with PUs and other CR networks is required.