A Parallel Rendezvous Multi-Channel MAC Protocol for Distributed Cognitive Radio Networks

Media access control (MAC) protocol decides the method how the nodes in the networks receive and send data by shared wireless channels. Whether the MAC protocol can use the limited channel effectively plays a very important role in the performance of the cognitive radio network. This paper proposes a protocol named CR-PRMAC, which is a parallel rendezvous multi-channel MAC protocol for distributed cognitive radio networks. Nodes in CR-PRMAC can communicate control frame with multiple channel. CR-PRMAC can avoid the bottlenecks of dedicated control channel. The protocol is simulated with NS2 and simulation results prove them working well.