A Novel Clustering Scheme for Spectrum Sharing in Multi-Hop Ad Hoc Cognitive Radio Networks

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The spectrum scarcity can be resolved using the paradigm of Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs). In CRNs, the Secondary Users (SUs) having no spectrum licenses can benefit from spectrum opportunities spatiotemporally left over by Primary Users (PUs) if these SUs do not make any harmful interference to the PUs. Due to the ease of deployment, the ad hoc CRNs are expected to attract the future applications of the secondary spectrum usage [1]. However, the new challenges in ad hoc CRNs should be tackled first to visualize the new revolution of this kind of networks. The spectrum availability variation over time and locations creates a unique trait of the CRNs. This key trait poses great challenges in different aspects in the basic design of ad hoc CRNs. One of the major challenges is how the SUs can exchange their control signaling to coordinate their spectrum sensing, spectrum allocation and access, and traffic routing. The intuitive way is to have a Common Control Channel (CCC), which can be in-band or out-of-band channel. In the literature, there are different approaches of choosing the CCC, and the readers may refer to [1] for more details. However, the spectrum heterogeneity seen by the SUs in multi-hop ad hoc CRNs makes using a CCC an embarrassing challenge. Network clustering can be used to overcome the spectrum heterogeneity by grouping the nearby users that may experience the same activities of the same set of PUs; moreover, the clustering can help to reduce the signaling overhead required for operating the network and maintaining its connectivity. Almost all the existing clustering approaches in CRNs aim to avoid using a global CCC and instead rely on in-band CCCs to coordinate their processes, and form clusters... ... middle of paper ... ...stems that are expected to cover larger area of communications than the SUs, so each group of nearby SUs is expected to be almost under the coverage of the same set of PUs. The nearby SUs are clustered with 1-hop from a central user based on the geographical locations of the users and their time occurrence orders, so each cluster covers a geographical part of the whole communication region. The SUs in each cluster cooperate to sense the spectrum in their vicinity and then access the available channels using a MAC framework. As shown in Fig. 1, each cluster consists of a Cluster Head (CH) user that initiates the cluster, Cluster Member (CM) users, and Cluster Gateway (CG) users that join the cluster with its neighboring clusters. We assume that the SUs rarely move, and when they do, they move slowly, so the topology of the network is dynamic with stable status.

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