Optimizing the number of samples for multi-channel spectrum sensing

Spectrum sensing in cognitive radio technology consumes a significant amount of time and energy resources. Thus, it has a direct effect on the achievable throughput and consumed energy. In case of multi-channel systems, the problem becomes more effective since both the resources expenditure and the performance influence of spectrum sensing increase. Considering energy detection as the spectrum sensing method, a number of energy samples should be collected from each channel. Unlike the conventional scheme, the number of samples collected from each channel should be different due to the variant channel conditions. In this paper, the number of samples collected from each channel is optimized based on different setups, namely, throughput maximization setup, interference minimization setup, and sensing energy minimization setup.