Cluster based Cognitive Radio Routing Mechanism with Link Stability (C2R2M-LS)

Abstract

Today, with the tremendous increase in the wireless devices we are facing the problem of spectrum scarcity. At the same time, the research about spectrum utilization shows that the usage is not efficient creating unutilized portions called as white spaces. The Cognitive Radio (CR) technology enables nodes to use unutilized portions of the spectrum for communications causing increase in the efficiency of spectrum usage. But in Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs) the design of protocols at various layers of the protocol stack is tedious. At network layer, routing of packets from source to destination is difficult and challenging as compared with normal wireless networks. Use of clustering in CRNs shows better network-wide performance. It increases stability of route, helps in route discovery and maintenance, rediscovery of route in case of link failure. It also causes reduction in routing overhead. This paper introduces a routing protocol for CRNs called Cluster based Cognitive Radio Routing Mechanism with Link Stability (C2R2M-LS). Simulation results show that C2R2M-LS achieves improved network performance in terms of throughput, delay and routing overhead as compared with Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) and C2R2M routing protocols in CRNs.