Gossip-Enabled Stochastic Channel Negotiation for Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks

The presence of a predefined control channel in ad hoc wireless networks is a common assumption widely accepted by the research community. However, it may not always be the case in some future networking scenarios with high-network dynamics and strong user diversity, such as cognitive radio (CR) ad hoc networks. This paper investigates channel negotiation in CR ad hoc networks without a predefined control channel by introducing a novel gossip-enabled stochastic channel negotiation (GES-CN) framework. The channel negotiation process is first formulated as an optimization problem, aiming to improve the probability of successful channel negotiation in the CR network while achieving sufficient suppression on the interferences to the primary networks. With the GES-CN framework, we develop an analytical model on the probability of successful channel negotiation as well as the resultant overhead in terms of the number of channel negotiation attempts made before achieving a successful channel negotiation process via an absorbing Markov chain. Numerical results demonstrate the merits of the proposed GES-CN framework and validate the developed analytical model. We conclude that the proposed GES-CN framework is an excellent candidate for the future distributed CR ad hoc networks with high dynamics and heterogeneity.