Optimized in-band control channel with channel selection scheduling and network coding in distributed cognitive radio networks

This article proposes an optimized in-band control channel scheme with channel selection scheduling algorithm and network coding based transmission paradigm in the distributed cognitive radio network (CRN). As well known, control channel plays an important role for establishment of wireless transmission. In order to improve spectrum efficiency in CRN, control channel is preferred to be deployed without dedicated spectrum allocation, i.e. the in-band way. In this study, the time slot division and dynamic channel selection scheduling algorithm is proposed to realize the in-band control channel with improved spectrum efficiency in the distributed CRN. Furthermore, to adapt to dynamic behavior of the primary users, network coding technology is employed to optimize the overhead of control information transmission so that the control information can be efficiently and reliably transmitted. The performance of the proposed in-band control channel scheme is verified by the extensive simulation results.