In cognitive radio networks (CRNs), two secondary users (SUs) need to meet on a channel among multiple channels within a finite time to establish a link, which is called rendezvous. For blind rendezvous, researchers have devised ample well-grounded channel hopping (CH) sequences that guarantee smaller time-to-rendezvous. However, the best part of these works lacks the impact of network factors, particularly channel availability and collision during rendezvous. In this study, a new CH scheme is investigated by jointly considering the medium access control (MAC) protocol for single-hop multi-user CRNs. The analysis of our new variable hopping sequence (V-HS) guarantees rendezvous for the asymmetric channel model within a finite time. Although this mathematical concept guarantees rendezvous between two SUs, opportunities can be overthrown because of the unsuccessful exchange of control packets on that channel. A successful rendezvous also requires the exchange of messages reliably while two users visit the same channel. We propose a MAC protocol, namely ReMAC, that can work with V-HS and CH schemes. This design allows multiple rendezvous opportunities when a certain user visits the channel and modifies the conventional back-off strategy to maintain the channel list. Both simulation and analytical results exhibited improved performance over the previous approaches.
Keywords: MAC protocol; blind rendezvous; cognitive radio networks (CRNs); probe request/response.