Multiple Antenna Cyclostationary Spectrum Sensing Based on the Cyclic Correlation Significance Test

In this paper, we propose and analyze a spectrum sensing method based on cyclostationarity specifically targeted for receivers with multiple antennas. This detection method is used for determining the presence or absence of primary users in cognitive radio networks based on the eigenvalues of the cyclic covariance matrix of received signals. In particular, the cyclic correlation significance test is used to detect a specific signal-of-interest by exploiting knowledge of its cyclic frequencies. Analytical asymptotic expressions for the probability of detection and probability of false-alarm under both spatially uncorrelated and spatially correlated noise are derived and verified by simulations. The detection performance in a Rayleigh flat-fading environment is found and verified through simulations. One of the advantages of the proposed method is that the detection threshold is shown to be independent of both the number of samples and the noise covariance, effectively eliminating the dependence on accurate noise estimation. The proposed method is also shown to provide higher detection probability and better robustness to noise uncertainty than existing multiple antenna cyclostationary-based spectrum sensing algorithms under both AWGN as well as a quasi-static Rayleigh fading channel.