A stable cluster-based architecture for cognitive radio ad-hoc networks

With the rapid development of wireless technologies, the demand for radio spectrum is ever increasing. Along with the spectrum scarcity problem, radio spectrums are also under utilized. Cognitive radio practices an open spectrum allocation technique, which can ensure efficient handling of the frequency bands. Suitable network architecture is a must for the implementation of cognitive radio networks. This paper presents stable cluster-based architecture for cognitive radio ad-hoc network. The proposed architecture splits the network into groups of clusters where the spatial variations of spectrum availability are considered for clustering. Set of free common channels resides every cluster for smooth shifting among control channels. We introduce a parameter called Cluster Head Determination Factor (CHDF) to select cluster-heads where clusters´ operations are coordinated by cluster-heads. Each cluster comprises of a secondary cluster-head to combat the re-clustering issue for mobile nodes. Conclusively, to evaluate the performance of our proposed scheme, simulation is conducted and comparative studies are performed.