Cooperative Spectrum Sensing over Correlated Log-Normal Sensing and Reporting Channels

In this paper, we investigate the performance of a general multi-layer decentralized system setup for cooperative spectrum sensing, which includes realistic sensing/reporting channels and correlated log-normal shadow-fading in all wireless links of the cooperative network. Our investigations will show that, even though often overlooked in typical cooperative spectrum sensing analysis, shadowing correlation on the reporting channel can yield similar performance degradations as shadowing correlation on the sensing channel. All findings will be substantiated via theoretical arguments and Monte Carlo simulations, and, in particular, novel approximation methods to account for correlated Log-Normal shadowing in cooperative spectrum sensing problems will be introduced.