Energy efficient cognitive cross-layer MAC protocol

The ever increasing demand for communication bandwidth and inefficient usage of the existing spectrum has led to spectrum scarcity. In this light, spectrum should be managed as a scare resource. For radio communication systems, efficient utilization of spectrum is the key requirement. The inefficient usage of the existing spectrum can be improved through opportunistic access to the licensed bands without interfering with the primary users. This introduces the concept of dynamic spectrum access and cognitive radio. This paper proposes a energy efficient medium access protocol for any cognitive network. For performance evaluation, proposed solution is implemented in NS2 and comparative analysis is also done against existing solution from the literature. The paper also validates that the proposed solution gives better results.