Network coding-aware channel allocation and routing in cognitive radio networks

In this paper, we investigate a network coding-aware channel allocation and routing scheme for multi-hop cognitive radio networks. We consider network coding and channel availability in cognitive radio networks and maximize the throughput by allocating the channel and link rate appropriately. First, we model the activities of the primary users and the interference among the secondary users in a cognitive radio network and show how to implement network coding in the multi-hop cognitive radio network. Second, we formulate an optimization problem to maximize the throughput of the network. It takes advantage of the network coding opportunities and considers the channel availability constraint. By solving this optimization problem, we can determine how to allocate channels and rates of links in different channel availability scenarios. Furthermore, we compare the performance of our scheme with the coding oblivious routing for different scenarios of channel availability and maximum number of channels in a random wireless network. Our work brings insights on the benefits of network coding-aware routing in multi-hop cognitive radio networks.