Orthogonal Signaling-based Sensing Data Reporting for Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio

Abstract

Cognitive radio (CR) features opportunistic access to spectrum when licensed users (LU) are not operating. To avoid interference to LU, cognitive users (CU) need to perform spectrum sensing. Because of local shadowing, fading, or limited sensing capability, it is suggested that multiple CUs cooperate to detect LU. In cooperative spectrum sensing, CUs should exchange their sensing data with minimum bandwidth and delay. In this paper, we introduce a novel method to efficiently report sensing data to the central node in an infrastructured OFDM-based CR network. All CUs simultaneously report their sensing data over unique and orthogonal signals on locally available subcarriers. By detecting the signals, the central node can determine subcarrier availability for each CU. Implementation challenges are identified and then their solutions are suggested. The proposed method is evaluated through simulation on a realistic channel model. The results show that the proposed method is feasible and efficient.