Interference-Aware Hybrid MAC protocol for Cognitive Radio Ad-Hoc Networks with Directional Antennas

CR and PU hidden terminals in multi-channel Cognitive MAC protocols result in increased packet drops. This is due to inefficient node synchronization with existing “Control Channel” design. To date, In-band and Out-of-band CCC based MAC protocols are proposed to avoid PU and CR hidden terminals. But, In-band CCC based CR-MAC protocols cannot efficiently resolve the hidden terminal packet drops due to imperfect node synchronization whereas out-of-band CCC based MAC is vulnerable to intruder attacks and channel saturation. To overcome this, we propose an Interference-aware hybrid CCC cognitive MAC protocol with directional RTS/CTS and data transmission. In addition, adaptive power control algorithm is proposed to avoid interference to hidden PU and CR nodes at edge coverage area. Experimental results show that proposed Hybrid cognitive MAC protocol has increased link aggregate throughput and reduced cognitive control overhead in comparison with existing CCC based CR-MAC protocols.