Integration of heterogeneous spectrum sensing devices towards accurate REM construction

Spectrum sensing is a fundamental feature of cognitive radio technologies facilitating detection and localization of spectrum opportunities. Combined with centralized database storage, it fosters reliable spatial spectrum measurements and Radio Environmental Maps (REMs) construction that can provide an accurate insight in the spectrum utilization over time, space and frequency. The spectrum sensing process often combines different devices with different capabilities. This paper introduces novel REM construction platform that integrates several mid- and low-end spectrum sensing devices into a single heterogeneous testbed. The devices of interest are USRP2s, TI RF2500 and Sun SPOTs, which are upgraded with custom developed software for providing versatile spectrum sensing capabilities. The paper evaluates their performances and discusses their integration into a single heterogeneous testbed platform. Additionally, the paper evaluates the realized heterogeneous spectrum sensing testbed in terms of accurate REM derivation and additional statistics gathering for indoor environments.