Route Aware Dynamic Channel Scheduling and Selection for Multi-Hop Cognitive Radio Networks

The complexity of the Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) framework and risk of disruption due to primary-secondary spectrum etiquette pose serious link layer challenges in multi-hop cognitive radio networks (MH-CRNs). In order to properly harness the DSA potential, cognitive radio (CR) channel scheduling and channel selection should be treated in a cross-layer approach with the network layer. In this paper, we present and evaluate a novel route aware dynamic channel scheduling and selection approach (RADCSS) for MH-CRNs. Our proposed approach provides a conflict-free time slot transmission scheduling between neighbor to neighbor CR pairs while estimating the probability of primary user (PU) disruption for every mutual channel. Furthermore, in a cross-layer fashion, our proposed method maximizes neighbor to neighbor transmission time slot reuse in accordance with network layer route request. Through simulations, we demonstrate that our proposed method provides significant improvement on the average number of channel switching, effective channel utilization and average throughput.