Implementation and Performance Evaluation of a Distributed TV White Space Sensing System

Ha-Nguyen TRAN  Yohannes D. ALEMSEGED  Hiroshi HARADA  

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E97-B   No.2   pp.305-313
Publication Date: 2014/02/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1345
DOI: 10.1587/transcom.E97.B.305
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Technologies for Effective Utilization of Spectrum White Space)
Category: 
Keyword: 
distributed spectrum sensing,  TV white space,  implementation,  system design,  performance evaluation,  

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Summary: 
Spectrum sensing is one of the methods to identify available white spaces for secondary usage which was specified by the regulators. However, signal quality to be sensed can plunge to a very low signal-to-noise-ratio due to signal propagation and hence readings from individual sensors will be unreliable. Distributed sensing by the cooperation of multiple sensors is one way to cope with this problem because the diversity gain due to the combining effect of data captured at different position will assist in detecting signals that might otherwise not be detected by a single sensor. In effect, the probability of detection can be improved. We have implemented a distributed sensing system to evaluate the performance of different cooperative sensing algorithms. In this paper we describe our implementation and measurement experience which include the system design, specification of the system, measurement method, the issues and solutions. This paper also confirms the performance enhancement offered by distributed sensing algorithms, and describes several ideas for further enhancement of the sensing quality.