A novel spectrum aware routing scheme for multi-hop cognitive radio mesh networks

Cognitive radio (CR) technology is a new communication paradigm that can be a solution for the spectrum scarcity problem. A new open spectrum operation necessitates a novel routing scheme to exploit the available spectrum opportunistically. In this paper, we propose a distributed routing scheme for multi-hop cognitive radio mesh networks. In cognitive radio networks the behavior of the primary user influences the secondary networks connectivity and the relevant performance. Some primary users may be hidden node and some primary user may be exposed node to the secondary users. The proposed routing schemes can avoid the primary exposed and primary hidden node problem during routing. We propose, a channel priority lists is kept by the secondary users. The secondary users select the channel among the channel priority lists depending on the primary user activity. Therefore it can avoid the end to end reroute procedure due to the exposed or hidden node problem. Throughput and end to end delay is used for the evaluation criteria. Simulation result shows that the proposed routing scheme enhances the network throughput and reduces the end to end delay significantly.