Spectrum aware highly reliable routing in multihop cognitive radio networks

Abstract

In cognitive radio networks, the new open spectrum operation necessitates novel routing protocols to exploit the available spectrum opportunistically. But due to the non-interfering requirement, a spectrum band used by secondary users may be unexpectedly preempted by primary users at any time, which challenges reliable communications. In this paper, we propose a novel spectrum aware on-demand routing protocol which focuses on reliable routing and considers opportunistic spectrum, link disruption, as well as node failure. Simulation results indicate that our proposed routing protocol can efficiently alleviate intermittent connectivity, reduce routing cost, and improve effective payload of data transmission.