Performance of sensing-after-transmission policy in cognitive personal area networks

Performance of cognitive personal area networks is critically dependent on the accuracy of channel sensing. To ensure smooth operation of a cognitive PAN, all nodes that have data to transmit must take part in the sensing process. However, sensing affects transmission and vice versa, and a balance between sensing and data transmission must be found. One mechanism suitable for achieving this balance is to mandate a predefined sensing duty after each packet transmission. The paper describes this policy and investigates its performance under a wide range of network and traffic parameters.