Channel prediction-based channel allocation scheme for multichannel cognitive radio networks

Cognitive radio (CR) has been proposed to solve the spectrum utilization problem by dynamically exploiting the unused spectrum. In CR networks, a spectrum selection scheme is an important process to efficiently exploit the spectrum holes, and an efficient channel allocation scheme must be designed to minimize interference to the primary network as well as to achieve better spectrum utilization. In this paper, we propose a multichannel selection algorithm that uses spectrum hole prediction to limit the interference to the primary network and to exploit channel characteristics in order to enhance channel utilization. The proposed scheme considers both the interference length and the channel capacity to limit the interference to primary users and to enhance system performance. By using the proposed scheme, channel utilization is improved whereas the system limits the collision rate of the CR packets.