Energy efficient channel sensing scheduling in cognitive radio networks

Recently, cognitive radio (CR) technology has been spotlighted for the efficient use of limited frequency bands. The most important part of CR technology is to protect the incumbent user communications. Therefore, CR device should periodically sense not only the currently using channel, but also some other channels to prepare candidates. In this paper, we propose a cooperative channel sensing mechanism that can effectively protect the primary users and also efficiently save the energy consumption in CR devices for channel sensing. Within a sensing zone, active sensing devices are decided fairly coordinated manner based on the current remained energy. Different sensing schedules are applied for inband and outband channel sensing. The performance results show that our sensing scheduling scheme reduces the number of sensing nodes and saves energy for channel sensing.