Spectrum Management in Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The objective of this research is to develop a spectrum management framework for cognitive radio ad hoc networks. The project investigates the challenges posed by the distributed multi-hop architecture, the dynamic network topology, and the frequently changing spectrum seen in these networks. Up to now, the research in this area has mainly focused on infrastructure-based networks. This research aims to highlight the major challenges in the distributed operation and provide protocol-level solutions for each of them. With respect to intellectual merit, this research has the potential to lead to a cooperation strategy that improves the sensing accuracy at an acceptable communication cost. To enable this interaction between nodes, an on-demand reliable common control channel is devised. For determining the best spectrum for transmission, a joint spectrum and route selection method is developed. Moreover, a cognitive radio medium access control protocol is proposed, with goals of providing interference avoidance as well as efficient spectrum utilization. Finally, a spectrum-aware route recovery framework is proposed for efficient operation when the cognitive radio nodes switch between frequency bands. With respect to broader impact, research results will lead to selected topics for a Cognitive Radio Networks taught by the principal investigator at Georgia Tech. Moreover, a cognitive radio simulator is implemented as part of this project and will be used in the class as an educational tool. Collaboration with industry and academic institutions is pursued to disseminate the current state-of-the-art.