Evaluation of Spectrum Occupancy in Indoor and Outdoor Scenario in the Context of Cognitive Radio

Dynamic spectrum access is an integral part of the Cognitive Radio paradigm. However, efficient spectrum sensing techniques are crucial on the way towards systems, which use idle spectrum bands opportunistically and increase the overall spectral efficiency. Current spectrum occupancy was evaluated in few measurement campaigns at different locations mostly located in the USA. In this paper we report about an extensive measurement campaign conducted in Aachen, Germany, comparing indoor-and outdoor measurement results. The highly sensitive measurement system enabled us to measure also man-made or ambient noise. Since an energy detector cannot differentiate such noise from other primary user signals we determine a very high spectrum occupancy in the outdoor scenario in the band from 20 MHz up to 3 GHz. Considerably less occupation was measured in the indoor scenario also because of less ambient noise. Our measurements confirm that the spectrum band 3-6 GHz is rarely occupied. We further provide a case study how the amplitude probability distribution can be used together with detailed regulatory information to infer additional information about the spectral usage. Such information is beneficial in order to optimize the spectrum sensing process and identify candidate bands for further investigation and possible secondary usage.