CRB-RPL: A Receiver-Based Routing Protocol for Communications in Cognitive Radio Enabled Smart Grid

As a tool for overcoming radio spectrum shortages in wireless communications, cognitive radio technology plays a vital role in future smart grid applications, particularly in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) networks with quality of service (QoS) requirements. This paper focuses on the investigation of the receiver-based routing protocol for enhancing QoS in cognitive radio-enabled AMI networks, due to their potentials of enhancing reliability and routing efficiency. In accordance with practical requirements of smart grid applications, a new routing protocol with two purposes is proposed: One is to address the real-time requirement while another protocol focuses on how to meet energy efficiency requirements. As a special feature of cognitive radio technology, the protocol has the mechanism for protecting primary (licensed) users while meeting the utility requirements of secondary (cognitive radio) users. System-level evaluation shows that the proposed routing protocol can achieve better performances compared with existing routing protocols for cognitive radio-enabled AMI networks.