The capacity of cognitive ad-hoc networks with carrier sensing errors

Abstract

We analyze the capacity of cognitive ad-hoc networks under the effects of sensing errors: false alarm and missed detection. We present an ad-hoc network model overlaid on a primary system from which a cognitive node exploits spectrum holes for retransmissions. We derive per-link capacity, the indicator of the network's capacity, by considering statistics of the primary users' (PUs) channel occupancy and sensing errors. Our analysis shows that the capacity scaling law is kept unchanged, O(1/√log n) by the number of nodes n, even after sensing errors are introduced. It also shows how the capacity depends on the PUs' channel occupancy and sensing errors.