SpiderRadio: An Incumbent Sensing Implementation for Cognitive Radio Networking Using IEEE 802.11 Devices

Spectrum sensing is one of the critical features in cognitive radio based dynamic spectrum access networking. In this paper, we discuss a new spectrum sensing technique for primary incumbent detection. The proposed method is based on observing the PHY errors, received signal strength and n-moving window averaging of the observed measurement. The sensing parameters are dynamically optimized based on the operating radio environment. This sensing method is implemented in SpiderRadio, a cognitive radio testbed based on off-the-shelf IEEE 802.11 devices. Experimental results show that the proposed technique results in very low sensing delay and failure probability.