MSMA/CA: Multiple Access Control Protocol for Cognitive Radio-Based IoT Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new MAC protocol for Cognitive Radio (CR)-based IoT networks, called MSMA/CA. We extend the standard CSMA/CA, adopted in IEEE 802.11 WLANs, to the CR networks with the minimal modification since it works well in the real world. We resolve the classical hidden/exposed terminal problems by a variant of RTS/CTS mechanism and further, the hidden primary terminal problem by the mutual spectrum sensing at the transmitter and the receiver. We also modify the backoff process of CSMA/CA to incorporate the blocking of secondary transmitters, with the aim of protecting ongoing primary transmissions from aggressive secondary users. We analyze the throughput and delay of our proposed scheme using the Markov chain model on the backoff procedure, and verify its accuracy by simulations. Simulation results demonstrate that our protocol is suitable for IoT networks since the performance is insensitive to the number of users or devices.