Energy Aware Multipath Routing Protocol for Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Cognitive radio networks (CRNs) emerged as a paradigm to solve the problem of limited spectrum availability and the spectrum underutilization in wireless networks by opportunistically exploiting portions of the spectrum temporarily vacated by licensed primary users (PUs). Routing in CRNs is a challenging problem due to the PU activities and mobility. On the other hand, energy aware routing is very important in energy-constraint CRNs. In addition, it is crucial that CR users efficiently exchange data with each other before the appearance of PUs. To design a robust routing scheme for mobile CR ad hoc networks (CRANs), the constraints on residual energy of each CR user, reliability, and the protection of PUs must additionally be taken into account. Moreover, multipath routing has great potential for improving the end-to-end performance of ad hoc networks. Considering all these evidences, in this paper, we propose an energy aware on-demand multipath routing (EOMR) protocol for mobile CRANs to ensure the robustness and to improve the throughput. The proposed routing scheme involves energy efficient multipath route selection and spectrum allocation jointly. The simulation results show that our approach improves the overall performance of the network.