SDR Implementation of the Autocorrelation Based Spectrum Sensing Technique for Cognitive Radio Networks

Spectrum sensing and dynamic spectrum access are the most important aspects of cognitive radios networks. The spectrum sensing techniques provide information about the utilization stat of frequency bands in a specific radio spectrum. According to this information, the dynamic spectrum access (DSA) orders the secondary users (unlicensed users) to use the frequency bands of primary/licensed users. The practice challenges of the spectrum sensing technique are the algorithm simplicity, the low sensing time, and the implementation possibility. This paper initially demonstrated the ability of correlation based spectrum sensing to detect the presence of the primary user's signal in poor reception conditions. The paper’s contribution shorts the study of the optimized detector parameters and the evaluation of its efficiency in simulation environments. Then, an SDR implementation using RTL-SDR dangle and GNU Radio software platform has been realized to validate and present the autocorrelation based spectrum sensing effectiveness and limitations in a real scenario.