Performance evaluation of Cognitive Radio Network Predictive MAC (P-MAC) access algorithm and its enhancement

Cognitive radio (CR) technology is envisaged to solve the problems in wireless networks resulting from the limited available spectrum resources and the inefficiency in the spectrum usage by exploiting the existing wireless spectrum opportunistically. In this paper, Predictive MAC (P-MAC) is the MAC protocol that we propose as a new one for Cognitive Radio Networks (CRN). This MAC protocol can be applied on centralized or distributed networks. It is based on a prediction model called Exponential Smoothing model (ESM) [6]. The ESM predicts the channel distribution behavior for an ON/OFF channel scenario with various distributions. The P-MAC has the ability to fill the channel´s vacancies as much as possible with less sensing time and RTS/CTS exchange. Therefore, the proposed model occupies the vacancies much better than the other ones. Also by using a simulation model we proved that it has higher throughput and less sensing overhead.