A Channel Hopping Algorithm for Guaranteed Rendezvous in Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks Using Swarm Intelligence

Achieving fast Time to Rendezvous (TTR) on a common coordination channel in an Ad hoc network remains a contemporary issue in Cognitive Radio research. In this paper, we present a new channel hopping algorithm for the selection of control channel in a heterogeneous, spatial, and time varying spectrum environment, with no pre-existing infrastructure such as an access point or a base station. We adopt the use of the bio-mimicry concept to develop a swarm intelligence based mechanism, which will guide nodes to hop unto the most prominent channel while waiting for potential neighbourhood discovery. A closed form expression for the TTR and Expected TTR (ETTR) was derived for various network scenarios. We provide a theoretical analysis of the TTR and ETTR of our algorithm, and show that our algorithm provides a TTR within order O(M) when compared with Generated Orthogonal Sequence and Channel Rendezvous Sequence of order \(O(P^2)\). The algorithm further provides an improved performance in comparison to the Jump–Stay and Enhanced Jump–Stay Rendezvous Algorithms.