Link quality aware geographical routing in hybrid cognitive radio mesh networks

Abstract

Cognitive radios are recommended by FCC as a countermeasure against spectrum scarcity and inefficient utilization of spectrum. A cognitive radio can opportunistically use temporally or spatially unused wireless channels allocated to other licensees to transmit data. In a multi-hop cognitive radio network, channel assignment is accomplished by routing protocols. Classical routing protocols are not suitable for cognitive radio networks, because they are unaware of spectrum opportunities. Existing spectrum aware routing protocols were designed with different objectives. Based on our survey, there still lacks a competent routing protocol for large scale heterogeneous hybrid cognitive radio mesh networks, which are the most fitting network substrate for intelligent environment applications, such as smart cities. In this paper, we propose GCM - a Geographic routing protocol for large scale heterogeneous hybrid Cognitive radio Mesh networks. GCM is a multi-objective routing protocol that is aware of spectrum, energy, load, and link quality.