20-10-2010, 05:09 PM
Abstract
There are new system implementation challenges involved in the design of cognitive radios, which have both the ability to sense the spectral environment and the flexibility to adapt transmission parameters to maximize system capacity while co-existing with legacy wireless networks. The critical design problem is the need to process multi-gigahertz wide bandwidth and reliably detect presence of primary users. This places severe requirements on sensitivity, linearity, and dynamic range of the circuitry in the RF front-end. To improve radio sensitivity of the sensing function through processing gain we investigated three digital signal processing techniques: matched filtering, energy detection, and cyclostationary feature detection. Our analysis shows that cyclostationary feature detection has advantages due to its ability to differentiate modulated signals, interference and noise in low signal to noise ratios. In addition, to further improve the sensing reliability, the advantage of a MAC protocol that exploits cooperation among many cognitive users is investigated.
INTRODUCTION
It is commonly believed that there is a spectrum scarcity at frequencies that can be economically used for wireless communications. This concern has arisen from the intense competition for use of spectra at frequencies below 3 GHz. The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) frequency allocation chart indicates overlapping allocations over all of the frequency bands, which reinforces the scarcity mindset. On the other hand, actual measurements taken in downtown Berkeley are believed to be typical and indicate low utilization, especially in the 3-6 MHz bands. Figure 1 shows the power spectral density (PSD) of the received 6 GHz wide signal collected for a span of 50s sampled at 20 GS/s [12]. This view is supported by recent studies of the FCC’s Spectrum Policy Task Force who reported vast temporal and geographic variations in the usage of allocated spectrum with utilization ranging from 15% to 85%. In order to utilize these spectrum ‘white spaces’, the FCC has issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM – FCC ) advancing Cognitive Radio (CR) technology as a candidate to implement negotiated or opportunistic spectrum sharing.
Wireless systems today are characterized by wasteful static spectrum allocations, fixed radio functions, and limited network coordination. Some systems in unlicensed frequency bands have achieved great spectrum efficiency, but are faced with increasing interference that limits network capacity and scalability. Cognitive radio systems offer the opportunity to use dynamic spectrum management techniques to help prevent interference, adapt to immediate local spectrum availability by creating time and location dependent in “virtual unlicensed bands”, i.e. bands that are shared with primary users. Unique to cognitive radio operation is the requirement that the radio is able to sense the environment over huge swaths of spectrum and adapt to it since the radio does not have primary rights to any pre-assigned frequencies. This new radio functionality will involve the design of various analog, digital, and network processing techniques in order to meet challenging radio sensitivity requirements and wideband frequency agility. Spectrum sensing is best addressed as a cross-layer design problem. Cognitive radio sensitivity can be improved by enhancing radio RF front-end sensitivity, exploiting digital signal processing gain for specific primary user signal, and network cooperation where users share their spectrum sensing measurements.
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