Overview of Blind Sensing Techniques Considered in IEEE 802.22 WRANs

Ever since the Federal Communications Commision (FCC) announced that it would open the television (TV) spectrum for opportunistic access, there has been an increased interest in industry as well as academia to come up with proposals that would fit the criteria laid by FCC. To this end, IEEE 802.22 Working Group (WG) is formulating the first worldwide standard for cognitive radio to operate in the ultra high frequency (UHF) television (TV) bands. In order for this standard to succeed, it is imperative that IEEE 802.22 systems employ an effective sensing mechanism to detect the presence of television signals in the UHF bands so that it can opportunistically access those bands that are not currently used by TV transmitters. Sensing is the most important component in any cognitive radio system. In this paper we provide an overview of the blind sensing techniques considered in the upcoming IEEE 802.22 wireless regional area network (WRAN).