Centralized Cooperative Spectrum Sensing for Ad-Hoc Disaster Relief Network Clusters

Disaster relief networks have to be highly adaptable and resilient. Cognitive radio enhanced ad-hoc architecture have been put forward as a candidate to enable such networks. Spectrum sensing is the cornerstone of the cognitive radio paradigm, and it has been the target of intensive research. The main common conclusion was that the achievable spectrum sensing accuracy can be greatly enhanced through the use of cooperative sensing schemes. When considering applying Cognitive Radio to ad-hoc disaster relief networks, spectrum sensing cooperative schemes are paramount. A centralized cluster-based orchestration cooperative sensing scheme is proposed, where the cluster head controls and adapts the distribution of the cluster sensing´s nodes according to the monitored spectrum state. The proposed scheme performance is evaluated through a framework, which allows gauging the accuracy of wideband multi-channel spectrum sensing cooperative schemes, showing that the proposed scheme performance reaches the theoretical maximum achievable accuracy while outperforming the round robin scheme.