Reporting channel design and analysis in cooperative spectrum sensing for cognitive radio networks

Cooperative spectrum sensing improves the performance of cognitive radio (CR) networks. In cooperative sensing, there are two important phases, detecting and reporting. In the detecting phase, multiple CR users detect the presence of primary users. In the reporting phase, one or multiple channels are needed for CR users to transmit local detection results to a fusion center (FC). In this paper, a reporting channel design, based on a random access protocol, is introduced for CR users and the fusion center. Analytical and simulation evaluations are performed considering the collision and capture in the reporting channels. In addition, the rule of K out of N is implemented in FC in determining global detection results. Numerical results demonstrate the feasibility of the random access based reporting channel in implementing cooperative spectrum sensing.