SEER: spectrum- and energy-efficient routing protocol for cognitive radio ad hoc networks

Cognitive radio ad hoc networks (CRAHNs) were developed to improve the utilization ratio of licensed spectrum. Since spectrum opportunities for users are varied over time and location, enhancing the spectrum effectiveness is a goal and also a challenge for CRAHNs. Besides, due to the energy limitation of the devices in CRAHNs, energy efficiency is another goal to be achieved. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to design a spectrum- and energy-efficient routing (SEER) protocol for CRAHNs, which improves transmission efficiency and balances energy consumption. The design of the protocol uses the techniques of expected transmission power, expected residual lifetime and utility indifference curves. The protocol will select the optimal route from all candidate paths. We present a performance comparison with two existing protocols for CARHNs: the minimum total transmission power (MTTP) and the min–max battery cost (MMBC) protocols. Simulation results show that SEER can reduce energy consumption by almost 40 % than that of MMBC, and increase network lifetime by almost 200 % than that of MTTP. Besides, SEER can improve the network throughput by at least 50 % and 150 % than that of MTTP and MMBC respectively.