Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio Networks: Performance Evaluation and Optimization

Abstract: This paper studies cooperative spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks where secondary users collect local energy statistics and report their findings to a secondary base station, i.e., a fusion center. First, the average error probability is quantitively analyzed to capture the dynamic nature of both observation and fusion channels, assuming fixed amplifier gains for relaying local statistics to the fusion center. Second, the system level overhead of cooperative spectrum sensing is addressed by considering both the local processing cost and the transmission cost. Local processing cost incorporates the overhead of sample collection and energy calculation that must be conducted by each secondary user; the transmission cost accounts for the overhead of forwarding the energy statistic computed at each secondary user to the fusion center. Results show that when jointly designing the number of collected energy samples and transmission amplifier gains, only one secondary user needs to be actively engaged in spectrum sensing. Furthermore, when number of energy samples or amplifier gains are fixed, closed form expressions for optimal solutions are derived and a generalized water-filling algorithm is provided.