Cognitive maritime wireless mesh/ad hoc networks

Cognitive maritime wireless mesh/ad hoc networks are proposed in this paper, for the purpose to provide high-speed and low-cost communications for the current maritime users by incorporating the licensed but unused frequency bands opportunistically. Compared to other technologies, this scheme offers advantages of plenty of available bandwidth, easy installation, easy coverage extension, and high resilience. Nodes design requirements, possibly available frequency bands, regulation requirements, operation standards, and maritime communication challenges of the proposed networks are introduced and analyzed. A cognition-enhanced mesh medium access control (MAC) protocol for the operation of the proposed cognitive maritime mesh/ad hoc networks is presented, as well as a routing protocol and a switching antenna design that are capable of meeting the maritime challenges. Simulation results show that a higher detection probability and a longer sensing interval are both helpful to achieve better network performance, especially in case of high sea state. The operators need to find balance among cost, network performance, and protection of incumbents in the operation of the networks.