DESIGN OF BANDWIDTH-BASED CHANNEL SENSING MECHANISM FOR COGNITIVE RADIO NETWORKS

Abstract

Cognitive Radio is a vast topic and has gained importance in the research community due to the increase in the number of wireless users. The spectrum availability is limited but the number of users is increasing on an exponential level. This demand for new users especially in the mobile user segment has mandated new methods to accommodate the secondary users. The first step in the cognitive radio setup is channel sensing. The primary users in the spectrum should be analyzed for the transmission parameters before the secondary users can be prepared to be accommodated. There are various approaches used in channel sense that should be carefully analyzed for a specific application before it can be implemented. This research paper reviews the channel sensing approaches and implements a simple yet efficient mechanism using bandwidth as the parameter. The design was simulated using the NS2 tool and the results of two levels using different network configurations are described. The results are satisfactory and the simulation can be extended with other network parameters, considered the future scope.