A cognitive radio ad hoc network (CRAHN) is a mobile network that can communicate without any form of centralized infrastructure. The nodes can learn about the environment and make routing decisions. Furthermore, distributed computing, spectrum mobility, and the Internet of Things have created large data sets, which require more spectrum for data transmission. Unfortunately, the spectrum is a scarce resource that underutilized by licensed users, while unlicensed users are overcrowding the free

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... pectrum. The CRAHNs technology has emerged as a promising solution to the underutilization of the spectrum. The focus of this study is to improve the effectiveness and energy consumption of routing in order to address the routing problem of CRAHNs through the implementation of the optimized cuckoo search algorithm. In CRAHNs, the node and spectrum mobility cause some frequent link breakages within the network, which degrades the performance of the routing protocols. This requires a routing solution to this routing problem. The proposed scheme was implemented in NS2 installed in Linux operating system, with a cognitive radio cognitive network (CRCN) patch. From the experimental results, we observed that the proposed OCS-AODV scheme outperformed CS-DSDV and ACO-AODV schemes. It obtained at least 3.87% packet delivery ratio and 2.56% and lower packets lost. The scheme enabled the mobile nodes to adjust accordingly to minimize energy consumption. If not busy, they switch to an idle state to save battery power.