Neighbor discovery in traditional wireless networks and cognitive radio networks: Basics, taxonomy, challenges and future research directions

Cognitive radio network is designed to opportunistically exploit the licensed band. To deploy a cognitive radio network, nodes need to perform the neighbor discovery process in order to enable communication and connectivity in the network. Neighbor discovery not only helps in successful and efficient communication in cognitive radio networks but also provides solutions to a majority of other traditional wireless network problems, such as gossiping or broadcasting a message, a global common control channel allocation, etc. In this paper, we provide a survey on neighbor discovery for traditional wireless networks and cognitive radio networks. In this perspective, we first provide basics and features of neighbor discovery, as well as, the challenges when moving from traditional wireless networks towards cognitive radio networks, in order to pave the way for a better understanding of the neighbor discovery in cognitive radio networks. We provide detailed taxonomy of neighbor discovery protocols in traditional wireless networks and cognitive radio networks. Finally, open issues, challenges, and future research directions have been highlighted for neighbor discovery in cognitive radio networks.