A new opportunistic MAC layer protocol for cognitive IEEE 802.11-based wireless networks

In this paper, we propose a cognitive radio based Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol for packet scheduling in wireless networks. Cognitive MAC protocols allow a class of users, called secondary users, to identify the unused frequency spectrum and to communicate without interfering with the primary users. In our proposed MAC protocol, each secondary user is equipped with two transceivers. One of the transceivers is used for control messages while the other periodically senses and dynamically utilizes the unused data channel. The secondary users report the status of channels on control channel and negotiate on the selected data channel itself for onward data transmission. Each channel is used by different set of secondary users. Contrary to existing protocols, data transmission takes place in the time slot in which spectrum opportunity is found. We develop a new analytical model, while taking into account the backoff mechanism. Our simulation results show that throughput increases with the increase in the number of channels.