Combined Soft Hard Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio Networks

Providing some techniques to enhance the performance of spectrum sensing in cognitive radio systems while accounting for the cost and bandwidth limitations in practical scenarios is the main objective of this thesis. We focus on an essential element of cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) which is the data fusion that combines the sensing results to make the final decision. Exploiting the advantage of the superior performance of the soft schemes and the low bandwidth of the hard schemes by incorporating them in cluster based CSS networks is achieved in two different ways. First, a soft-hard combination is employed to propose a hierarchical cluster based spectrum sensing algorithm. The proposed algorithm maximizes the detection performances while satisfying the probability of false alarm constraint. Simulation results of the proposed algorithm are presented and compared with existing algorithms over the Nakagami fading channel. Moreover, the results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing algorithms. In the second part, a low complexity soft-hard combination scheme is suggested by utilizing both one-bit and two-bit schemes to balance between the required bandwidth and the detection performance by taking into account that different clusters undergo different conditions. The scheme allocates a reliability factor proportional to the detection rate to each cluster to combine the results at the Fusion center (FC) by extracting the results of the reliable clusters. Numerical results obtained have shown that a superior detection performance and a minimum overhead can be achieved simultaneously by combining one bit and two schemes at the intra-cluster level while assigning a reliability factor at the inter-cluster level

Low Complexity Energy-Efficient Collaborative Spectrum Sensing for Cognitive Radio Networks

Clustering approach is considered a management technology that arranged the distributed cognitive radio users into logical groups to improve the sensing performance of the network. A lot of works in this area showed that cluster-based spectrum sensing (CBSS) technique efficiently tackled the trade-off between performance and overhead issue. By employing the tree structure of the cluster, a multilevel hierarchical cluster-based spectrum sensing (MH-CBSS) algorithm was proposed to compromise between the gained performance and incurred overhead. However, the MH-CBSS iterative algorithm incurs high computational requirements. In this thesis, an energy-efficient low computational hierarchical cluster-based algorithm is proposed which reduces the incurred computational burden. This is achieved by predetermining the number of cognitive radios (CRs) in the cluster, which provides an advantage of reducing the number of iterations of the MH-CBSS algorithm. Furthermore, for a comprehensive study, the modified algorithm is investigated over both Rayleigh and Nakagami fading channels. Simulation results show that the detection performance of the modified algorithm outperforms the MH-CBSS algorithm over Rayleigh and Nakagami fading channels. In addition, a conventional energy detection algorithm is a fixed threshold based algorithm. Therefore, the threshold should be selected properly since it significantly affects the sensing performance of energy detector. For this reason, an energy-efficient hierarchical cluster-based cooperative spectrum sensing algorithm with an adaptive threshold is proposed which enables the CR dynamically adapts its threshold to achieve the minimum total cluster error. Besides, the optimal threshold level for minimizing the overall cluster detection error rate is numerically determined. The detection performance of the proposed algorithm is presented and evaluated through simulation results

Energy-efficient spectrum sensing approaches for cognitive radio systems

Designing an energy efficient cooperative spectrum sensing for cognitive radio network is our main research objective in this dissertation. Two different approaches are employed to achieve the goal, clustering and minimizing the number of participating cognitive radio users in the cooperative process. First, using clustering technique, a multilevel hierarchical cluster-based structure spectrum sensing algorithm has been proposed to tackle the balance between cooperation gain and cost by combining two different fusion rules and exploiting the tree structure of the cluster. The algorithm considerably minimizes the reporting overhead while satisfying the detection requirements. Second, based on reducing the number of participating cognitive radio users, primary user protection is considered to develop an energy efficient algorithm for cluster-based cooperative spectrum sensing system. An iterative algorithm with low complexity has been proposed to design energy efficient spectrum sensing for cluster-based cooperative systems. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly minimize the number of contributing of cognitive radio users in the collaboration process and can compromise the performance gain and the incurred overhead. Moreover, a variable sensing window size is also considered to propose three novel strategies for energy efficient centralized cooperative spectrum sensing system using the three hard decision fusion rules. The results show that strategies remarkably increase the energy efficiency of the cooperative system; furthermore, it is shown optimality of k out of N rule over other two hard decision fusion rules. Finally, joint optimization of transmission power and sensing time for a single cognitive radio is considered. An iterative algorithm with low computational requirements has been proposed to jointly optimize power and sensing time to maximize the energy efficiency metric. Computer results have shown that the proposed algorithm outperforms those existing works in the literature

Efficacy of Decentralized CSS Clustering Model Over TWDP Fading Scenario

Cognitive Radio technology, which lowers spectrum scarcity, is a rapidly growing wireless communication technology. CR technology detects spectrum holes or unlicensed spectrums which primary users are not using and assigns it to secondary users. The dependability of the spectrum-sensing approach is significantly impacted from two of the most critical aspects, namely fading channels and neighboring wireless users. Users of non-cooperative spectrum sensing devices face numerous difficulties, including multipath fading, masked terminals, and shadowing. This problem can be solved using a cooperative- spectrum-sensing technique. For the user, CSS enables them to detect the spectrum by using a common receiver. It has also been divided into distributed CSS and centralized CSS. This article compares both ideas by using a set of rules to find out whether a licensed user exists or not. This thought was previously used to the conventional fading channels, such as the Rician, Rayleigh and the nakagami-m models. This work focused on D-CSS using clustering approach over TWDP fading channel using two-phase hard decision algorithms with the help of OR rule as well as AND rule. The evaluation of the proposed approaches clearly depicted that the sack of achieve a detection-probability of greater than 0.8; the values SNR varies between -14 dB to -8 dB. For all two-phase hard decision algorithms using proposed approach and CSS techniques, the detection probability is essentially identical while the value of signal to noise ratio is between -12 dB to -8dB. Throughout this work, we assess performance of cluster-based cooperative spectrum-sensing over TWDP channel with the previous findings of AWGN, Rayleigh, and wei-bull fading channels. The obtained simulation results show that OR-AND decision scheme enhanced the performance of the detector for the considered range of signal to noise ratios

Implementation of spectrum sensing techniques for cognitive radio systems

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This work presents a method for real-time detection of secondary users at the cognitive wireless technologies base stations. Cognitive radios may hide themselves in between the primary users to avoid being charged for spectrum usage. To deal with such scenarios, a cyclostationary Fast Fourier Transform accumulation method (FAM) has been used to develop a new strategy for recognising channel users under perfect and different noise environment conditions. Channel users are tracked according to the changes in their signal parameters, such as modulation techniques. MATLAB® Simulation tool was used to run various modulation signals on channels, and the obtained spectral correlation density function shows successful recognition between secondary and primary signals. We are unaware of previous efforts to use the FAM characteristics or other detection methods to make a distinction between channel users as presented in this thesis. A novel combination of both cognitive radio technology and ultra wideband technology is interdicted in this thesis, looking for an efficient and reliable spectrum sensing method to detect the presence of primary transmitters, and a number of spectrum-sensing techniques implemented in ultra wideband and cognitive radio component (UWB-CR) under different AWGN and fading settings environments. The sensing performance of different detectors is compared in conditions of probability of detection and miss detection curves. Simulation results show that the selection of detectors rely on the different fading scenarios, detector requirements and on a priori knowledge. Furthermore, result showed that the matched filter detection method is suitable for detecting signals through UWB-CR system under various fading channels. A general observation is that the matched filter detector outperforms the other detectors in all scenarios by an average of SNR=-20 dB in the level of probability of detection (Pd) , and the energy detector slightly outperforms the cyclostationary detector, in the level Pd at SNR=-20 dB. Furthermore, the thesis adapts novel detection models of cooperative and cluster cooperative wideband spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks. In the proposed schemes, wavelet-based multi-resolution spectrum sensing and a proposed approach scheme are utilized for improving sensing performance of both models. On the other hand, cluster based cooperative spectrum sensing with soft combination Equal Gain Combination (EGC) scheme is proposed. The proposed detection models could achieve improvement of transmitter signal detection in terms of higher probability of detection and lower probability of false alarm. In the cooperative wideband spectrum sensing model, using traditional fusion rule, existing worst performance of false alarms by measurement is 78% of the sensing bands at an average SNR=5 dB; this compares with the proposed model, which is by measurement 19% false alarms of scanning spectrum at the same SNR for cluster cooperative wideband spectrum sensing. The proposed combining methods shows improvements of results with a high probability of detection (Pd) and low probability of false alarm (Pf) at an average SNR=-16 dB compared with other traditional fusion methods; this is illustrated through numerical results

Byzantine Attack and Defense in Cognitive Radio Networks: A Survey

The Byzantine attack in cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS), also known as the spectrum sensing data falsification (SSDF) attack in the literature, is one of the key adversaries to the success of cognitive radio networks (CRNs). In the past couple of years, the research on the Byzantine attack and defense strategies has gained worldwide increasing attention. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey and tutorial on the recent advances in the Byzantine attack and defense for CSS in CRNs. Specifically, we first briefly present the preliminaries of CSS for general readers, including signal detection techniques, hypothesis testing, and data fusion. Second, we analyze the spear and shield relation between Byzantine attack and defense from three aspects: the vulnerability of CSS to attack, the obstacles in CSS to defense, and the games between attack and defense. Then, we propose a taxonomy of the existing Byzantine attack behaviors and elaborate on the corresponding attack parameters, which determine where, who, how, and when to launch attacks. Next, from the perspectives of homogeneous or heterogeneous scenarios, we classify the existing defense algorithms, and provide an in-depth tutorial on the state-of-the-art Byzantine defense schemes, commonly known as robust or secure CSS in the literature. Furthermore, we highlight the unsolved research challenges and depict the future research directions.Comment: Accepted by IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutoiral

Packet Size Optimization for Multiple Input Multiple Output Cognitive Radio Sensor Networks aided Internet of Things

The determination of Optimal Packet Size (OPS) for Cognitive Radio assisted Sensor Networks (CRSNs) architecture is non-trivial. State of the art in this area describes various complex techniques to determine OPS for CRSNs. However, it is observed that under high interference from the surrounding users, it is not possible to determine a feasible optimal packet size of data transmission under the simple point-to-point CRSN network topology. This is contributed primarily due to the peak transmit power constraint of the cognitive nodes. To address this specific challenge, this paper proposes a Multiple Input Multiple Output based Cognitive Radio Sensor Networks (MIMO-CRSNs) architecture for futuristic technologies like Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. A joint optimization problem is formulated taking into account network constraints like the overall end to end latency, interference duration caused to the non-cognitive users, average BER and transmit power.We propose our Algorithm-1 based on generic exhaustive search technique blue to solve the optimization problem. Furthermore, a low complexity suboptimal Algorithm-2 based on solving classical Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions is proposed. These algorithms for MIMO-CRSNs are implemented in conjunction with two different channel access schemes. These channel access schemes are Time Slotted Distributed Cognitive Medium Access Control denoted as MIMO-DTS-CMAC and CSMA/CA assisted Centralized Common Control Channel based Cognitive Medium Access Control denoted as MIMO-CC-CMAC. Simulations reveal that the proposed MIMO based CRSN network outperforms the conventional point-to-point CRSN network in terms of overall energy consumption. Moreover, the proposed Algorithm-1 and Algorithm2 shows perfect match and the implementation complexity of Algorithm-2 is much lesser than Algorithm-1. Algorithm-1 takes almost 680 ms to execute and provides OPS value for a given number of users while Algorithm- 2 takes 4 to 5 ms on an average to find the optimal packet size for the proposed MIMO-CRSN framework

Un nuevo esquema de agrupación para redes sensoras inalámbricas de radio cognitivas heterogéneas

Introduction: This article is the product of the research “Learning-based Spectrum Analysis and Prediction in Cognitive Radio Sensor Networks”, developed at Sejong University in the year 2019. Problem: Most of the clustering schemes for distributed cognitive radio-enabled wireless sensor networks consider homogeneous cognitive radio-enabled wireless sensors. Many clustering schemes for such homogeneouscognitive radio-enabled wireless sensor networks waste resources and suffer from energy inefficiency because of the unnecessary overheads. Objective: The objective of the research is to propose a node clustering scheme that conserves energy and prolongs network lifetime. Methodology: A heterogeneous cognitive radio-enabled wireless sensor network in which only a few nodes have a cognitive radio module and the other nodes are normal sensor nodes. Along with the hardware cost, theproposed scheme is efficient in energy consumption. Results: We simulated the proposed scheme and compared it with the homogeneous cognitive radio-enabled wireless sensor networks. The results show that the proposed scheme is efficient in terms of energyconsumption. Conclusion: The proposed node clustering scheme performs better in terms of network energy conservation and network partition. Originality: There are heterogeneous node clustering schemes in the literature for cooperative spectrum sensing and energy efficiency, but to the best of our knowledge, there is no study that proposes a non-cognitiveradio-enabled sensor clustering for energy conservation along with cognitive radio-enabled wireless sensors. Limitations: The deployment of the proposed special device for cognitive radio-enabled wireless sensors is complicated and requires special hardware with better battery powered cognitive sensor nodes

Optimising Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio Networks Using Interference Alignment and Space-Time Coding

In this thesis, the process of optimizing Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio has been investigated in fast-fading environments where simulation results have shown that its performance is limited by the Probability of Reporting Errors. By proposing a transmit diversity scheme using Differential space-time block codes (D-STBC) where channel state information (CSI) is not required and regarding multiple pairs of Cognitive Radios (CR’s) with single antennas as a virtual MIMO antenna arrays in multiple clusters, Differential space-time coding is applied for the purpose of decision reporting over Rayleigh channels. Both Hard and Soft combination schemes were investigated at the fusion center to reveal performance advantages for Hard combination schemes due to their minimal bandwidth requirements and simplistic implementation. The simulations results show that this optimization process achieves full transmit diversity, albeit with slight performance degradation in terms of power with improvements in performance when compared to conventional Cooperative Spectrum Sensing over non-ideal reporting channels. Further research carried out in this thesis shows performance deficits of Cooperative Spectrum Sensing due to interference on sensing channels of Cognitive Radio. Interference Alignment (IA) being a revolutionary wireless transmission strategy that reduces the impact of interference seems well suited as a strategy that can be used to optimize the performance of Cooperative Spectrum Sensing. The idea of IA is to coordinate multiple transmitters so that their mutual interference aligns at their receivers, facilitating simple interference cancellation techniques. Since its inception, research efforts have primarily been focused on verifying IA’s ability to achieve the maximum degrees of freedom (an approximation of sum capacity), developing algorithms for determining alignment solutions and designing transmission strategies that relax the need for perfect alignment but yield better performance. With the increased deployment of wireless services, CR’s ability to opportunistically sense and access the unused licensed frequency spectrum, without causing harmful interference to the licensed users becomes increasingly diminished, making the concept of introducing IA in CR a very attractive proposition. For a multiuser multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) overlay CR network, a space-time opportunistic IA (ST-OIA) technique has been proposed that allows spectrum sharing between a single primary user (PU) and multiple secondary users (SU) while ensuring zero interference to the PUs. With local CSI available at both the transmitters and receivers of SUs, the PU employs a space-time WF (STWF) algorithm to optimize its transmission and in the process, frees up unused eigenmodes that can be exploited by the SU. STWF achieves higher performance than other WF algorithms at low to moderate signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regimes, which makes it ideal for implementation in CR networks. The SUs align their transmitted signals in such a way their interference impairs only the PU’s unused eigenmodes. For the multiple SUs to further exploit the benefits of Cooperative Spectrum Sensing, it was shown in this thesis that IA would only work when a set of conditions were met. The first condition ensures that the SUs satisfy a zero interference constraint at the PU’s receiver by designing their post-processing matrices such that they are orthogonal to the received signal from the PU link. The second condition ensures a zero interference constraint at both the PU and SUs receivers i.e. the constraint ensures that no interference from the SU transmitters is present at the output of the post-processing matrices of its unintended receivers. The third condition caters for the multiple SUs scenario to ensure interference from multiple SUs are aligned along unused eigenmodes. The SU system is assumed to employ a time division multiple access (TDMA) system such that the Principle of Reciprocity is employed towards optimizing the SUs transmission rates. Since aligning multiple SU transmissions at the PU is always limited by availability of spatial dimensions as well as typical user loads, the third condition proposes a user selection algorithm by the fusion centre (FC), where the SUs are grouped into clusters based on their numbers (i.e. two SUs per cluster) and their proximity to the FC, so that they can be aligned at each PU-Rx. This converts the cognitive IA problem into an unconstrained standard IA problem for a general cognitive system. Given the fact that the optimal power allocation algorithms used to optimize the SUs transmission rates turns out to be an optimal beamformer with multiple eigenbeams, this work initially proposes combining the diversity gain property of STBC, the zero-forcing function of IA and beamforming to optimize the SUs transmission rates. However, this solution requires availability of CSI, and to eliminate the need for this, this work then combines the D-STBC scheme with optimal IA precoders (consisting of beamforming and zero-forcing) to maximize the SUs data rates