  This paper introduces a new channel selection strategy for reliable
contentionaware data dissemination in multi-hop cognitive radio network. The
key challenge here is to select channels providing a good tradeoff between
connectivity and contention. In other words, channels with good opportunities
for communication due to (1) low primary radio nodes (PRs) activities, and (2)
limited contention of cognitive ratio nodes (CRs) acceding that channel, have
to be selected. Thus, by dynamically exploring residual resources on channels
and by monitoring the number of CRs on a particular channel, SURF allows
building a connected network with limited contention where reliable
communication can take place. Through simulations, we study the performance of
SURF when compared with three other related approaches. Simulation results
confirm that our approach is effective in selecting the best channels for
efficient and reliable multi-hop data dissemination.
