Spectrum Aware Routing for Multi-Hop Cognitive Radio Networks with a Single Transceiver

In multi-hop single transceiver Cognitive Radio networks (MSCRN), routing becomes of great challenge when IEEE 802.11 DCF is used as the MAC protocol. Routing should not base on common control channel because it is not ensured that common control channel can be obtained by each node. In this paper, we propose a spectrum aware on-demand routing which doesn't base on control channel. A channel assignment algorithm aimed at improving link utilization is derived from delay-analysis. The overhead and gain by switching are balanced in this algorithm. For deafness problem caused by switching can result in significant performance degradation, constraints to avoid the appearance of deafness in channel assignment process are given. We stress that our approach can be easily implemented for the using of standard IEEE 802.11DCF. Results of simulation show that, our approach can well fit MSCRN and improve the network throughput comparing to the same network scenario without cognitive ability.