Performance comparison of eigenvalue based blind spectrum sensing algorithms

Abstract

In the past few years opportunistic spectral access schemes has been proved as a prominent solution for the prevailing problem of spectrum scarcity. These schemes employ spectral sensing approaches to detect the presence or absence of a primary user and to subsequently allow the secondary user to transmit the data. With the evolution of Multi I/p Multi O/p (MIMO) and massive MIMO systems that picked up momentum from 3G and 4G respectively, sensing with multiple antenna systems has been popularized. In this paper, blind spectrum sensing for multiple antenna systems using eigenvalue based approaches has been compared for Rayleigh and Nakagami fading channel environments. Particularly, Covariance Absolute VAule (CAV), Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and Minimum Description Length (MDL), Weighted Covariance Detection (WCD) and Energy Detection (ED) based sensing schemes have been compared for their detection performance as a function of Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). The simulation results showed that AIC and MDL based sensing approaches outperform the others compared in both Rayleigh and Nakagami fading channels.