Robust topology control in multi-hop cognitive radio networks

The opening of under-utilized spectrum creates the opportunity of substantial performance improvement through cognitive radio techniques. However, the real network performance may be limited since unlicensed users must vacate and switch to other available spectrum if the current spectrum is reclaimed by the licensed (primary) users. During the spectrum switching time, network partitions may occur since multiple links may be affected if they all operate on the channel reclaimed by the primary users. In this paper, we address this problem through robust topology control, where channels are assigned to minimize channel interference while maintaining network connectivity when primary users appear. To solve this NP-hard problem, we propose both centralized and distributed algorithms. Simulation results show that our solutions outperform existing interference-aware approaches substantially when primary users appear and achieve similar performance at other times.