Hybrid CCC based AODV routing protocol for cognitive radio ad-hoc networks with directional antennas

End-to-end application throughput and node energy consumption at cognitive network layer is based on channel-route selected from cognitive routing algorithm with common control channel (CCC) characteristics. Hence, CCC based CR-AODV is utmost important to select energy efficient shortest end-to-end channel-path and reduce route control overhead. State-of-the-art routing protocols design CCC with In or Out-of-band overlay spectrum bands. Per hop and group coverage with In-band CCC is subject to higher end-to-end channel switching delays and multi-channel hidden terminal. On the other hand, global coverage with out-of-band CCC leads to channel saturation and intruder attacks that result in a single point of network failure. To overcome this, we propose a hybrid CCC design for AODV routing protocol with Omni-directional control and directional data transmission that reduce end-to-end channel-route power consumption, avoid multi-channel hidden terminal and minimize spectrum handover packet drops. Experimental results reveal that proposed routing with directional data transmission has increased throughput, reduced power consumption and less control overhead when compared with existing In/Out-of-band Omni-directional based CR-routing protocols.