Title
Medium access control protocols in cognitive radio networks
Abstract
In cognitive radio (CR) networks, medium access control (MAC) protocols play an important role to exploit the spectrum opportunities, manage the interference to primary users (PUs), and coordinate the spectrum access amongst secondary users (SUs). In this paper, we first introduce the challenges in the design and implementation of CR MAC protocols. Then, we make a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art CR MAC protocols and categorize them on the basis of spectrum sharing modes, i.e., overlay and underlay modes. We also introduce some other classification metrics such as architecture (centralized or distributed), sharing behaviors (cooperative or non-cooperative), and access modes (contention based or contention free). Through the study, we find out that most CR MAC protocols are designed for the overlay mode. The CR MAC protocols in underlay mode could yield higher spectrum utilization efficiency with the cost of more complicated power and admission control schemes. The centralized CR MAC protocols are more suitable to do spectrum sensing using quiet period of whole network, while the distributed CR MAC protocols are more flexible to deploy. We identify several future directions, such as more practical CR MAC protocols for underlay mode, MAC protocols considering security, MAC protocols considering heterogeneous coexistence, etc. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. We introduce the state-of-the-art CR MAC protocols in overlay and underlay spectrum sharing modes, respectively. In future, we may expect more practical CR MAC protocols in the underlay mode. Furthermore, we recommend considering the issues, such as MAC layer security and heterogeneous coexistence, in the design of CR MAC protocols.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1002/wcm.v10:1
Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing
Keywords
Field
DocType
cognitive radio,medium access control,spectrum sharing
Admission control,Software-defined radio,Computer science,Power control,Computer network,Exploit,Underlay,Access control,Overlay,Distributed computing,Cognitive radio
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
10
1
1530-8669
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
26
1.15
36
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jie Xiang117011.18
Yan Zhang25818354.13
Tor Skeie3110374.67