Adaptive EM-based algorithm for cooperative spectrum sensing in mobile environments

In this work we propose a new adaptive algorithm for cooperative spectrum sensing in dynamic environments where the channels are time varying. We assume a cooperative sensing procedure based on the soft fusion of the signal energy levels measured at the sensors. The detection problem is posed as a composite hypothesis testing problem. Then, we consider the Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test approach where the maximum likelihood estimate of the unknown parameters (which are the signal-to-noise ratio under the different hypotheses) are obtained from the most recent energy levels at the sensors by means of the Expectation-Maximization algorithm. We derive simple closed-form expressions for both, the E and the M steps. The algorithm can operate even when only a subset of sensors report their energy estimates, which makes it suited to be used with any sensor selection strategy (active sensing). Simulation results show the feasibility and efficiency of the method in realistic slow-fading environments.This work has been funded by SODERCAN and Programa Operativo FEDER under grant CAIMAN - 12.JU01.64661, and by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO) of Spain, and AEI/FEDER funds of the E.U., under grants TEC2017-86921-C2-1-R (CAIMAN), TEC2013-47141-C4-R (RACHEL) and TEC2016-75067- C4-4-R (CARMEN)

Adaptive clustering algorithm for cooperative spectrum sensing in mobile environments

In this work we propose a new adaptive algorithm for cooperative spectrum sensing in dynamic environments where the channels are time varying. We assume a centralized spectrum sensing procedure based on the soft fusion of the signal energy levels measured at the sensors. The detection problem is posed as a composite hypothesis testing problem. The unknown parameters are estimated by means of an adaptive clustering algorithm that operates over the most recent energy estimates reported by the sensors to the fusion center. The algorithm does not require all sensors to report their energy estimates, which makes it suited to be used with any sensor selection strategy (active sensing). Simulation results show the feasibility and efficiency of the method in realistic slow-fading environments.This work has been funded by SODERCAN and Programa Operativo FEDER under grant CAIMAN - 12.JU01.64661, and by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO) of Spain, and AEI/FEDER funds of the E.U., under grants TEC2017-86921-C2-1-R (CAIMAN), TEC2013-47141-C4-R (RACHEL) and TEC2016-75067- C4-4-R (CARMEN)

Spectrum sensing, spectrum monitoring, and security in cognitive radios

Spectrum sensing is a key function of cognitive radios and is used to determine whether a primary user is present in the channel or not. In this dissertation, we formulate and solve the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) for spectrum sensing when both primary user transmitter and the secondary user receiver are equipped with multiple antennas. We do not assume any prior information about the channel statistics or the primary user’s signal structure. Two cases are considered when the secondary user is aware of the energy of the noise and when it is not. The final test statistics derived from GLRT are based on the eigenvalues of the sample covariance matrix. In-band spectrum sensing in overlay cognitive radio networks requires that the secondary users (SU) periodically suspend their communication in order to determine whether the primary user (PU) has started to utilize the channel. In contrast, in spectrum monitoring the SU can detect the emergence of the PU from its own receiver statistics such as receiver error count (REC). We investigate the problem of spectrum monitoring in the presence of fading where the SU employs diversity combining to mitigate the channel fading effects. We show that a decision statistic based on the REC alone does not provide a good performance. Next we introduce new decision statistics based on the REC and the combiner coefficients. It is shown that the new decision statistic achieves significant improvement in the case of maximal ratio combining (MRC). Next we consider the problem of cooperative spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks (CRN) in the presence of misbehaving radios. We propose a novel approach based on the iterative expectation maximization (EM) algorithm to detect the presence of the primary users, to classify the cognitive radios, and to compute their detection and false alarm probabilities. We also consider the problem of centralized binary hypothesis testing in a cognitive radio network (CRN) consisting of multiple classes of cognitive radios, where the cognitive radios are classified according to the probability density function (PDF) of their received data (at the FC) under each hypotheses

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

Spectrum Sensing Algorithms for Cognitive Radio Applications

Future wireless communications systems are expected to be extremely dynamic, smart and capable to interact with the surrounding radio environment. To implement such advanced devices, cognitive radio (CR) is a promising paradigm, focusing on strategies for acquiring information and learning. The first task of a cognitive systems is spectrum sensing, that has been mainly studied in the context of opportunistic spectrum access, in which cognitive nodes must implement signal detection techniques to identify unused bands for transmission. In the present work, we study different spectrum sensing algorithms, focusing on their statistical description and evaluation of the detection performance. Moving from traditional sensing approaches we consider the presence of practical impairments, and analyze algorithm design. Far from the ambition of cover the broad spectrum of spectrum sensing, we aim at providing contributions to the main classes of sensing techniques. In particular, in the context of energy detection we studied the practical design of the test, considering the case in which the noise power is estimated at the receiver. This analysis allows to deepen the phenomenon of the SNR wall, providing the conditions for its existence and showing that presence of the SNR wall is determined by the accuracy of the noise power estimation process. In the context of the eigenvalue based detectors, that can be adopted by multiple sensors systems, we studied the practical situation in presence of unbalances in the noise power at the receivers. Then, we shift the focus from single band detectors to wideband sensing, proposing a new approach based on information theoretic criteria. This technique is blind and, requiring no threshold setting, can be adopted even if the statistical distribution of the observed data in not known exactly. In the last part of the thesis we analyze some simple cooperative localization techniques based on weighted centroid strategies