Performance Analysis of Cluster-Based Multi-Hop Underlay CRNs Using Max-Link-Selection Protocol

In this paper, we study the performance of a cluster-based multihop underlay cognitive radio network using an ad-hoc routing protocol (called max-link-selection protocol) with decode-and-forward relays over Rayleigh fading channels. Both peak-power and peak-interference constraints are considered in the system. At first, the end-to-end exact and asymptotic outage probabilities of the considered system are derived. By using the derived asymptotic outage, an approximate expression for the optimum number of hops that minimize the outage probability is derived for fixed-rate and fixed-distance between the source and destination nodes. Later, the exact and asymptotic expressions are derived for end-to-end symbol-error-rate (SER) and ergodicrate of the considered system. Numerical results are presented to validate the derived analytical expressions. It is shown by analysis that with increasing number of relaying hops between the source and destination, the SER performance improves but the ergodic-rate declines.