Spectrum Sensing Techniques in Cognitive Radio Networks: A Survey

Abstract

The growing demand of wireless applications has put a lot of constraints on the usage of available radio spectrum which is limited and precious resource. However, a fixed spectrum assignment has lead to under utilisation of spectrum as a great portion of licensed spectrum is not effectively utilised. Cognitive radio is a promising technology which provides a novel way to improve utilisation efficiency of available electromagnetic spectrum. Spectrum sensing helps to detect the spectrum holes (underutilised bands of the spectrum) providing high spectral resolution capability. In this paper, survey of spectrum sensing techniques is presented. The challenges and issues involved in implementation of spectrum sensing techniques are discussed in detail giving comparative study of various methodologies.