Channel access and traffic control for dynamic-spectrum networks with single-transmit, dual-receive radios

Cognitive radios have a great potential to improve spectrum utilization by enabling dynamic spectrum access. A key challenge in operating these radios is how to implement an efficient medium access control (MAC) mechanism that adaptively and efficiently allocates transmission powers and spectrum according to the surrounding environment. In this work, we propose a distributed MAC protocol for operating spectrum-agile radios in a multi-hop ad hoc network. Our protocol is unique in that it exploits the “dual-receive” capability of radios, which is used to overcome channel access problems that are common to multi-channel designs. We conduct theoretical analysis of the protocol and study its performance via simulations. To further improve the system throughput, we propose a framework for joint adaptive load and medium access controls. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves more than 90% of the maximum (global) system throughput that is achieved at saturation, while guaranteeing low collision rates.