Design of an Efficient MAC Protocol for Opportunistic Cognitive Radio Networks

Cognitive radio technology has been developed in recent years to make efficient use of the wireless spectrum especially for opportunistic spectrum access. Cognitive radio technology enables the secondary (cognitive) users to use the unused licensed spectrum of the primary users. Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol plays a vital role in spectrum utilization, primary user’s (PU) interference management and secondary user’s coordination in cognitive radio (CR) networks. Here, we propose a new MAC protocol where control transceiver attached with sensor improves the accuracy of spectrum sensing result as well as protects the primary user from interference. In our proposed MAC protocol, each secondary user (SU) is equipped with two radios, solves the multichannel hidden terminal problem (MHTP). Our proposed MAC protocol considers collision avoidance among SU’s and between SU’s and PU’s. We develop an analytical model validated by simulation. Our scheme improves the network throughput in presence of sensing error.