Title :
A Quantitative Analysis of Spectral Occupancy Measurements for Cognitive Radio
Author :
Chiang, Robin I C ; Rowe, Gerard B. ; Sowerby, Kevin W.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Auckland Univ.
Abstract :
Cognitive radio (CR) is viewed as a possible solution to the problem of radio spectrum congestion. The CR technique utilizes a temporarily unoccupied licensed band. Before investigating the technical and political implications of CR, it is necessary to know to what extent the licensed bands are temporally unoccupied. This paper describes a spectral occupancy measurement campaign conducted in the frequency range between 806 MHz and 2750 MHz in urban Auckland, New Zealand. The purpose of the measurement is to identify potential spectral opportunities for CR. Statistical analysis of the measurement results are presented in the form of noise distributions, signal amplitude probability distributions, and spectral occupancy rates as percentages of time. These analyses indicate that, on average, the actual spectral usage in this band is only about 6.2%. Pint-to-point links and some mobile uplink channels are identified as the most probable candidates for future CR operations. These results suggest that CR could bring significant gains in spectral usage. These results also imply that, in order to provide a reliable detection of the primary signal, cooperative sensing techniques may be necessary to mitigate various wireless channel effects.
Keywords :
cognitive radio; mobile radio; noise; radio links; signal detection; statistical analysis; statistical distributions; wireless channels; 806 to 2750 MHz; Auckland; New Zealand; cognitive radio; mobile uplink channels; noise distributions; point-to-point links; radio spectrum congestion; signal amplitude probability distributions; spectral occupancy measurements; statistical analysis; wireless channel effects; Chromium; Cognitive radio; Frequency measurement; Noise level; Noise measurement; Probability distribution; Signal processing; Spectral analysis; Statistical analysis; Time measurement;
Conference_Titel :
Vehicular Technology Conference, 2007. VTC2007-Spring. IEEE 65th
Conference_Location :
Dublin
Print_ISBN :
1-4244-0266-2
DOI :
10.1109/VETECS.2007.618