Link-delay and spectrum-availability aware routing in cognitive sensor networks

Abstract

This study designs and presents routing protocols multi-channel, multi-hop cognitive radio sensor network (CRSN), which are based on spectrum sensing, spectrum-availability analysis and per-hop delay analysis. In order to cope with the spectrum dynamics in the CRSNs, a framework is proposed to estimate the remaining duration of spectrum availability which is based on the expected idle length of channels, sensing period and communication history on the channel. Such methodology allows cognitive users to mitigate communication interruptions caused by arrivals of primary users, thus to improve the transmission performance over each hop. In particular, in combination with the per-hop delay analysis, the routing paths from sources to the sink can be established such as they provide the shortest delay opportunistically or shorter delay but reliable communication along the selected paths. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed routing algorithms potentially improve the network performances in terms of throughput, delay and energy consumption.