Performance evaluation of broadcasting strategies in cognitive radio networks

Broadcasting is an important phenomenon, because it serves as simplest mode of communication in a network, via which each node disseminates information to their neighboring nodes simultaneously. Broadcasting is widely used in various kind of networks, such as wireless sensor networks, wireless networks, and ad-hoc networks. Similarly, in cognitive radio networks (CRNs), broadcasting is also used to perform many tasks including neighbor discovery, spectrum mobility, spectrum sharing, and dissemination of message throughout the network. The traditional approach that has been used as broadcasting in CRNs is simple flooding in which a message is disseminated in the network without any strategy check. Simple flooding can cause major setbacks in the network, such as excessive redundant rebroadcasts, and collision drops which collectively are termed as broadcast storm problem. To reduce the effects of broadcast storm problem in wireless networks, we propose and compare four broadcasting strategies for cognitive radio networks in this paper. These four strategies are: (1) probability based, (2) counter based, (3) distance based, and (4) area based. Extensive NS-2 based simulations are carried out on different threshold values for each broadcasting strategy. After experimental evaluation, it is demonstrated that counter based broadcasting surpasses other broadcasting strategies by achieving maximum delivery ratio of 60% and by decreasing redundant rebroadcasts and collision drops up to 44 and 37% respectively.