A New Analytical Model for Multi-Hop Cognitive Radio Networks

The cognitive radio (CR) is an emerging technique for increasing the utilisation of communication resources by allowing the unlicensed users to employ the under-utilised spectrum. In this paper, a new analytical performance model is developed to evaluate the QoS of multi-hop CR networks. After validating its accuracy through extensive simulation experiments, the analytical model is adopted as a cost-effective tool to investigate the effects of the primary users´ activities on the network performance. Moreover, the model can be used to study the strategy of employing under-utilised spectra so as to maximise the overall resource utilisation and network performance.